


The Only One Who Believed in You

by onlydaisy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-05-16 01:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 23,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14801822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlydaisy/pseuds/onlydaisy
Summary: This was supposed to just be a bunch of one-shots but I've since turned it into just your typical father/son Tony and Peter post-infinity war story.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to start it like this I'm sorry.

“Mr. Stark?”

Tony turns towards Peter, turns away from the group of people he’d just watched die, saddened and angry at losing against Thanos, already plotting in his head what they’d have to do next, but still ready to console Peter because watching this would’ve been so much harder for him.

“I don’t feel so good,” Peter says instead, and Tony’s heart drops. This can’t be happening, he can’t let this happen. This kid is _his_ responsibility.

“You’re alright,” he tells Peter. He’s not gonna freak out and he’s not going to let Peter freak out.

“I don’t- I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t know w-” Peter steps towards Tony, tripping and falling forward. Tony catches him and Peter immediately wraps his arms round Tony, clinging on desperately.

_“This isn’t a hug. We’re not there yet.”_

“I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go,” Peter mumbles, his whole weight giving out in Tony’s grip, “Sir, please,” he begs, breaking Tony’s heart. There’s nothing he can do. The one thing Tony can’t stand is being helpless. He likes to be prepared, he likes to be ready to fight and defend himself, protect himself and the people he cares about from anything that could go wrong. And now he’s completely helpless. This kid that was a stranger a year ago and now means more than anything to Tony is dying in his arms, bit by bit, and there’s nothing he can do about it. 

“I don’t wanna go,” Peter repeats, his voice breaking and Tony can feel the tears soaking into the exposed part of his shoulder. _I’m not letting you go_ , he thinks. Whatever happens, he’s going to save him. Somehow.

_“What if someone had died tonight?”_

“I don’t wanna go,” Peter cries, and Tony is terrified because he don’t know where he’s going, if he’s going anywhere. He doesn’t know how powerful Thanos is, or how evil he can be. He wishes he could go with him, so whatever and wherever it is he can at least try and protect him.

_“Different story, right? Because that’s on you._

Tony kneels down, laying Peter on the floor but keeping his arms round him, as if it could protect him somehow.

_“And if you died, I feel like that’s on me.”_

Peter looks up at him, and Tony can clearly recognise the guilt in his face. He looks at Tony as if he’s let him down and Tony wishes he could explain that this isn’t his fault.

_“Yes sir, I’m sorry. I understand.”_

Peter starts to disappear and it takes all Tony has not to yell and scream and fight. He wants to save this kid and he wants him to stop looking at him as if he’s done something wrong.

_“Sorry doesn’t cut it.”_

“I’m sorry.”

_“I just wanted to be like you.”_


	2. Chapter 2

“We did it,” Tony says, looking round at everyone reappearing on the Wakanda fields.

“This is what happens when we work together,” Steve comments, earning a warning look from Tony.

“I should go, I might not be on the best terms with everyone that’s reappearing,” Tony says, trying to hide the fact that’s he’s just desperate to find Peter.

Nebula, who had been an all but silent but significant partner in the whole ordeal, looks at him knowingly, “I will come with you. I need to get to Quill so we can find my sister.”

Tony nods, “Thor, any chance we can hitch a lift to Titan?”

A couple of the other share looks about Tony, unaware of his intentions. He still hasn’t spoken about Peter to any of them. He couldn’t even open up to Pepper about him. Instead, he’s just let the guilt eat away at him while the most anyone else knows is there’s some kid called Spider-Man that Tony knows that’s probably still in Queens.

“Of course,” Thor says, luckily before anyone can raise questions.

 

* * *

 

When they arrive on Titan, Tony notices Peter’s absence immediately.

“Where is he?” he almost yells, lunging over to Quill until he’s practically inches away.

“I don’t know, man.”

“Tell me where the hell he is!” Tony yells now, grabbing Quill’s shirt.

“He left a while ago, okay? He looked all freaked out and pale and ran off somewhere.”

“And you didn’t think to go after him?!”

“I don’t know him!” Quill starts yelling back.

“He’s a kid!” Tony feels his anger rising but stops himself. He needs to find Peter, he’s what’s important right now. He walks off without another word to Quill, in the direction he had looked hoping that that’d been where Peter had ran.

“Peter?” Tony calls out, looking round for any signs of him. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. is he in his suit?”

“Yes, sir,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replies, “a bit further forward and on your left.”

“Great,” Tony replies absentmindedly, noticing the rubble with an almost solid wall of webs on one side.

“His heart and breathing rate appears elevated, unnaturally so, Sir.”

“Shit,” Tony says, propelling himself forward that little bit further until he’s stood in front of the pile of rubble, trying to figure out where exactly Peter is in all of it. “Peter?” he questions, and sees some movement _through_ the webs. Great, he’s hidden himself behind it.

Tony cuts through the web the opposite end to where he saw movement, before retracting his suit - he needs Peter to know he’s actually there - and kneeling down to get somewhat inside with Peter.

“Peter?” Tony repeats, knowing immediately that it didn’t register with him and he feels a wave of sickness. This is all too familiar for Tony. “Peter, it’s me,” he says, “take a deep breath,” the shallow, ragged breathing that’s going on at the moment doesn’t sound healthy, “I’m gonna take your suit off, okay?” he warns Peter, reaching forward and retracting the suit, releasing Peter from it.

The sudden shock of it seems to wake Peter up from his state, his shallow breathing being replaced with deep, wheezing breaths as if he was just plunged into ice water. But now he’s looking at Tony, and recognising him as being there. It’s progress.

“Hey, kid, we gotta sort out your breathing,” Tony says, putting a hand on Peter’s chest, over his pounding heart to calm him, “deep breath in,” he watches carefully to make sure he does, “deep breath out.”

They continue like that for a few minutes until Peter’s heart has somewhat slowed down and he’s gotten control over his breathing again.

“I died,” Peter says with a gasp, his voice croaking.

“I know-”

“I died and you were there and we watched them all die and then…I wasn’t dead and they were all there and you weren’t and I just…I was scared, I guess.”

“That’s okay,” Tony says. He doesn’t know how to reassure people. He can’t even cope with this stuff with himself. “I’m here now.”

“Yeah?” Peter says, looking up at Tony and looking so young and scared that it hits him with a wave of responsibility. This is a kid. He’s a sixteen year old _kid_ , what is he doing? Tony’s not a dad. He wouldn't even know how to be an uncle.

“Thanos is gone. We killed him.”

“Yeah,” Peter says absentmindedly, but Tony can recognise his relief. “Mr. Stark-” Peter starts, interrupted by Tony pulling him into sudden hug.

“Never ever do that again,” he tells him, holding on tight.

“Sorry, sir.”

“No, it’s not your fault,” Tony says, pulling back and looking embarrassed by himself, “I was just…scared, is all.” _Very scared._

Peter looks at Tony, not saying anything, but there’s something behind his eyes that Tony can’t quite understand.

“Can we go home?” Peter asks, and Tony’s hit with the overwhelming feeling of responsibility again. What has this kid done to him?

“Good idea, kid.”


	3. Chapter 3

It’s weird adjusting to being back, for Peter. He was bundled into two huge hugs when he saw May and Ned again for the first time. Even Michelle gave him an awkward hug, and Flash didn’t bully him for at least one day. Sure, half the universe had disappeared along with him, but apparently having to hitch a ride with the Guardians back to Earth from Titan takes longer than just reappearing where you’d disappeared on Earth. So, at least as Ned tells him, there was a brief period of time when everyone thought he was more dead than the rest of them had been, which he supposes hadn’t been great from them. Especially considering the few people that actually cared about him hadn’t been wiped out by Thanos, so it was a lot longer for them.

May notices that Peter’s acting weird since he got back, and she won’t stop questioning and worrying about him.

“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?” She asks. Her relief at seeing him alive had been enough to stop her wondering where he’d actually been, for a couple days, at least. But that was gone now and Peter was trying his best to put off worrying her even more.

“I was on that…field…trip…thing.”

“No you weren’t,” May looks at him sternly, “Ned was on that too and he told me you’d disappeared before you even got there, so what was it?”

“Nothing…” Peter says, avoiding meeting her eyes, fiddling with something on the table instead.

“Peter Benjamin Parker.” Okay, that got his attention, shit. “Tell me the truth. Were you doing Spider-Man stuff?”

“May, it’s not a big deal, I don’t want you to worry-”

“I’ll decide if I get to worry or not, now tell me!”

“Yeah…” Peter says, looking down again.

“Is it this Tony Stark again?”

“No! May, Mr. Stark didn’t do anything - I chose to go see what was happening.” The last thing Peter wants is May getting mad at Mr. Stark and stopping him from being able to see him or do any Avengers stuff with him.

“They said on the news that he was missing, on some spaceship. Were you with him?”

“I, uh-”

“Peter!”

“There were bad guys! I needed to help!” Peter says, because May still never seems to understand the responsibility he has, even since discovering his identity.

“No you didn’t, you need to keep yourself safe too!”

“Yeah but if I can help, then that’s my responsibility,” Peter says, feeling the weight of what he’s saying for the first time, because he’s part of the reason Thanos won. He _held_ the gauntlet in his hands, but he let Thanos get it again and he wiped out half the universe with it.

“No, it’s not, Peter,” May tells him, “you don’t have to save everyone.”

“I do- I-” Peter starts before he gets choked up. He feels so overwhelmed with guilt that it’s drowning him. “Can I be excused?”

“Peter-”

“Please,” Peter says, and he guesses May can see how close he is to freaking out and she nods, letting him go with one last look of worry.

As soon as Peter gets into his room he drops himself down on his bed, taking huge, heaving breaths. _Its okay_ , he tries to reassure himself, _everyone’s alive now_. But that didn’t help him, not even slightly. Because he doesn’t know what happens in those months he was gone. He saw the pain in Mr. Stark because of whatever he’d been through after Thanos, whoever he’d lost. Pepper Potts could’ve disappeared; Peter knows she at least is important. He could be the reason Mr. Stark lost his fiancée and had to travel the universe and kill someone to get her back. He’s surprised Mr. Stark doesn’t hate him and even came to find him on Titan, instead of leaving him there to be dealt with by the Guardians.

Thinking about what he’s done to Mr. Stark doesn’t help, because he’s one of the few people he genuinely cares about the opinion of, and really doesn’t want to let down. But now he has, and it’s way too late to repair any of that. Mr. Stark, or even Happy, hasn’t been in contact with him since he dropped him off after bringing him back from Titan, and even that was a brief goodbye. He seemed worried about Peter on Titan, so he would’ve thought that he’d actually try and check up on Peter at least a little bit, but maybe not. Maybe they’re just going to go back to normal, with Peter being ignored by Mr. Stark and slightly less ignored, but nevertheless still ignored, by Happy too. That’s probably the best he can hope for right now, cause the other option is Mr. Stark giving up on him entirely. Maybe he’ll want the suit back again, because Peter clearly can’t be trusted with any kind of responsibility. He destroyed half the universe and Mr. Stark had to clean up his mess, as always.

Peter’s train of thought comes to a halt when he realises he’s hyperventilating and he _really_ needs to get some air. He feels like he’s drowning all over again, except Tony Stark won’t rescue him this time. Peter stands up, pulling on his Spider-Man suit. He needs to get out of this apartment.

Once he’s all suited up, he climbs out the window, making it to the rooftop before he starts feeling dizzy and overwhelmed and has to stop himself. He can see so many people, in the street, through their windows. So many families and couples and friends and it just makes Peter realise even more how many of those he tore apart because he couldn’t even hold onto a stupid metal glove. He’s _useless_. No wonder Mr. Stark’s going to take away his suit.

Okay, Peter needs to stop. He tries to stop himself from thinking about everything in an attempt to ease the weight on his chest that’s making each breath so much harder, but he can feel his thoughts spiralling out of control. It really, _really_ doesn’t help when he looks up to see none other than Iron Man coming towards him at full speed. Probably not actually Mr. Stark, but one of his suits. So it’s time for Peter to say goodbye to his suit.

“Hey, kid,” the suit says in Mr. Stark’s voice, slowing to a stop in front of him, gently dropping onto the rooftop in front of him. But then the suit is disappearing, leaving Mr. Stark standing there instead, looking at Peter with a slight frown.

Peter tries to hide his surprise at Mr. Stark being here again, but he’s probably completely unsuccessful now he’s entered full panic territory. Mr. Stark is really mad, like last time. That’s why he’s actually here.

“Please, Sir,” Peter says before Mr. Stark can say anything else, and he sees a brief flicker of hurt flash across Mr. Stark’s face that he can’t figure out, but it’s gone out of his head quickly, “don’t take my suit again.”

“What?” Mr. Stark asks, looking genuinely confused, the hurt gone.

“I- I know you’re mad at me, because I’m not good at this and I just get in the way, because I can’t actually do anything useful and I shouldn’t be trusted with this kind of responsibility and I know I’m the reason that half the universe died and I put you through loads of stuff and I know you don’t really want me on the Avengers but please, Sir, let me keep the suit,” Peter stutters out, the words spilling and tripping over each other and a vaguely understandable mess.

“Kid, I’m not here to take your suit,” Mr. Stark says, surprising Peter.

“Why…?” Peter tries to form a full sentence, he really does.

“Because I’ve got F.R.I.D.A.Y. to tell me whenever you put on your suit, and this is the first time since, y’know. So I checked up on you, and your heart rate did not look like your typical helping-old-women-with-directions.”

“Sorry,” Peter says, looking away.

“Don’t apologise kid,” Mr. Stark says, sitting down next to him, “I get it.”

Peter shrugs, doubting it - Mr. Stark has his life together, he doesn’t pathetically freak out over anything.

“Why are you blaming yourself for Thanos?”

“I- uh,” Peter was a bit calmer from knowing Mr. Stark isn’t mad at him, but he still wasn’t great, “I had the gauntlet, but I let it go and then he killed half the universe with it. And I _had it_.”

“So what? I’ve been in contact with multiple infinity stones, you think I don’t wish I’d found a way to destroy them?”

“That’s not the same…”

“I don’t care. This isn’t your fault, Peter.”

“But-”

“Nope, no buts. Listen, kid, I’m proud of everything you did on Titan and that spaceship. You’ve done way more than I ever did when I was sixteen. You can’t blame yourself for anything that went wrong up there, okay?”

Peter takes a deep breath, calming more. He doesn’t completely believe Mr. Stark, but it’s still reassuring to hear. “What were you like at sixteen?” he asks, trying to distract himself.

“Oh, god. I was a brat that just spent his time building robots. Hell, I still had a nanny when I was fourteen.”

“Really?” Peter asks, starting to cheer up, “Were you that bad?”

“Hey, watch it, kid,” Mr. Stark looks at Peter smirking, “I was worse in my 20s, the nanny was mostly my parents’ lack of caring about me.”

Peter tries not to be jealous at Mr. Stark actually having parents, because by the sounds of it Aunt May is better than both of them combined.

“My parents weren’t really around much, either,” Peter comments, noticing Mr. Stark looking at him weirdly, “what?”

“You’ve never spoken about your parents before.”

“I mean, you’ve never asked.”

“It’s not something you ask, kid,” Mr. Stark says, which is fair enough, “I just knew you lived with your aunt and assumed the worst.”

“Well, yeah,” Peter says, surprising himself already about how much he’s starting to open up to Mr. Stark, “they died when I was four.”

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Stark tries to say, but Peter shrugs it off, “but you could remember them not being around?”

“Not really,” Peter admits, which he doesn’t like to - the fact that he can’t even remember his own parents just makes him feel guilty, “but May’s told me how much she and Ben used to look after me even before they died, because they were so busy with work.”

Mr. Stark looks annoyed, and Peter tries to run back through their conversation to see what he could’ve done to annoy him.

“Have I annoyed you?” he asks, giving up trying to figure it out on his own.

“No, no,” Mr. Stark hurries out, “god, no. It’s just- you’re a good kid, and it’s not fair. No job should be that important.”

“Yeah,” Peter sighs, agreeing all too much.

“What did they do?”

Peter shrugs, “Something that meant they had to travel a lot. Something really secretive apparently. May’s never really told me exactly what they did, she didn't know much.”

Mr. Stark’s clearly thinking about something, but doesn’t share it with Peter so he doesn’t try to pry. “You deserve better than that, you know that, right?”

“I guess,” Peter shrugs again.

“Listen to me,” Mr. Stark says, seriously, “you do, okay?” he holds a look with Peter for a few more moments before turning away, putting an arm round Peter, his hand resting on his shoulder protectively, and for the first time since Ben had died, Peter felt a fatherly presence in his life, which he could never admit to Mr. Stark, but he felt safe and protected and for a brief moment with the two of them sat on that rooftop looking over Queens, he wasn’t just an orphan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some happy stuff for you!


	4. Chapter 4

“Dude,” Ned says, the second Peter gets to his locker, “apparently people saw _Iron Man_ flying through Queens yesterday, did you get to see him?”

“Uh, yeah,” Peter says, trying to play it off as if it’s nothing, grabbing the books he needs for class, “he was coming to see me.”

“No way!” Ned practically yells with excitement, and Peter has to give him a look when people start staring, “You can just call Iron Man and he shows up!” he says, trying and failing to whisper.

“Actually, I didn’t really ask him to come,” Peter finishes getting his stuff and locks his locker, starting to make his way to class with Ned trailing behind.

“That’s even cooler!”

“I don’t know,” Peter shrugs. It’s not like Mr. Stark would show up _if_ Peter asks, it’s only when he decides it on his own that he’s going to come see him. Besides, he thought he was in danger, just like all the other times he’s visited him. So, it’s not like he actually cares or wants to hang out with Peter, he just feels responsible for him because of the suit.

“I don’t care, you’re best friends with Iron Man!” Ned says, then pauses for a moment, thinking, “Wait, am I gonna get replaced by Iron Man? I mean, that sucks ‘cause you’re my best friend, but if I’m gonna get replaced with anyone, _Tony Stark_ is pretty cool! Oh, and then you can introduce me as well, and all three of us can be best friends! Do you think he likes Legos?”

“Mr. Stark is probably way to busy for Lego,” Peter sighs, “there’s no way he would wanna be friends with me. Anyway, I prefer you.”

“Yeah, right,” Ned scoffs, and before Peter can argue anything he’s interrupting him, “Shit. I should’ve been walking in the other direction. Shit. I’ll see you later!” and with that, he’s gone.

 

* * *

 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., how’s Peter doing?”

“Still at school, boss.”

Right, of course. It’s the middle of the week and Peter’s in class. This would be something Tony normally forgets - he’s not exactly used to school hours or even regular work hours - except he’s asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. this at least every hour and gotten the exact same response every time. Before everything happened, Peter probably would’ve left school halfway through the day to fight crime, but since he’s been back he seems to be playing it a bit safer. At least, Tony hopes. But that still doesn’t mean Tony won’t keep checking up on him, just in case. He wishes he could do something more, have Peter living here so he knew when he got home and when he left home and could check up on him whenever he wanted without having to go through F.R.I.D.A.Y. each time. But it’s not exactly like his aunt would be too happy about Tony kidnapping her nephew, or moving the two of them across the city. Tony can’t be a parent anyway, he’s barely even managed as a responsible adult.

Who knows, maybe this all happened for a reason. Maybe if Peter turns out alright, then that’s a sign that Tony could manage having kids, one day. Not superhero kids, because he doesn’t think he’d survive the stress of having another Peter, but kids nonetheless.

“You’ve been daydreaming a lot, lately,” Pepper says from behind him, making Tony almost jump out of his skin.

“Jesus, when did you learn how to teleport?” trying to cover up his genuine shock, but he knows Pepper can see straight through him, as always.

“ _You_ just weren’t paying attention, as it always seems to be, lately,” she says, dropping some papers on the table in front of him, “you need to sign these.”

Tony signs them, not bothering to read it or even concern himself with what it could be about - Pepper knows what she’s doing, and he trusts her.

“What’s going on with you lately?” she asks, genuine concern in her voice.

“Nothing,” Tony says, wishing he could brush it off easily, “really. Just…worn out, from everything with Thanos.”

“I’ve seen you worn out, Tony. You’re always worn out. This, this is something else.”

Tony shrugs, “I’m fine.”

“When you got back from Titan the first time you were crazy, you didn’t care about a single thing that wasn’t stopping Thanos, and now that you’ve stopped him you just seem distant and distracted.”

“Just a lot to think about, I guess.”

“Like what? Talk to me.”

“It’s nothing,” Tony says, starting to wake up from his haze now, handing the papers back to Pepper and pushing his chair further down the table to continue working on what he’d been doing before he got distracted, “really, I’m fine.”

Pepper sighs, knowing she’s not going to get anything out of Tony yet, but that doesn’t mean she won’t stop trying, “If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you later, Tony.”

Tony tries to ignore the fact that he’s probably pissed off Pepper and looks back at his work. He sighs, not really knowing what to do. He’s been working on another updated Spider-Man suit and stressing himself out over all the details he wants to add. The Iron Spider is useful, but he wants Peter to be able to have a normal suit too, except he wants to include everything he possibly can to keep Peter protected and Tony informed, so nothing ever happens to him ever again.

While he’s debating whether or not to add some kind of blood glucose monitor, to make sure Peter’s eating enough, his phone rings. Tony sighs; his phone is the other side of the room and it’s probably just Pepper updating him on something or other already. Definitely not worth standing up for.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., once that rings out let me here the message.”

“Sure, boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replies, and sure enough once the ringtone stops it beeps through the Pepper’s message.

“Hey, uh, Mr. Stark,” a young male voice says. Peter’s voice. Not Pepper’s. “I know you said only to call in an emergency, and I know this isn’t an emergency and you probably knew I’d do that so you didn’t pick up,” Tony feels bad for ignoring the kid now, “but I think there might be people coming after me. I don’t know what’s happening but, like, I keep feeling like I’m being watched or followed and I just left school and I just feel like I’m in danger, you know? It’s probably nothing and I can try handle it on my own, but I just…I wanted to let you know…” Peter’s message trails out and Tony can notice the loss of confidence towards the end. He feels bad for the kid, and he honestly doesn’t know what to do; Tony knows he shouldn’t be in Peter’s life. He’s a bad influence, he encourages Peter to do stupid things just by being himself, and he can in no way provide any kind of stable and responsible adult figure in his life. He hasn’t had a dad since he was four or an uncle for years, and Tony doesn’t want to take over that male role model position in his life because he knows he’ll just mess it up and mess Peter up even more than he already has. He can’t handle that responsibility and Peter doesn’t deserve it.

He’ll try leave the kid alone, at least for a while. He knows he’ll be better off without him.


	5. Chapter 5

Peter knows he’s being paranoid. He knows there’s no reason to keep checking behind him whenever he leaves the apartment or double lock the front door at night once May’s gone to sleep. He’s losing sleep over this, mostly falling asleep in the living room after watching the front door for hours. There’s no way he’s letting Aunt May get hurt and dragged into anything Peter’s caused. He wishes he could keep her safe from everything.

He also wishes Tony Stark would actually return his calls. He’s starting to think he might’ve given him a fake number, because there’s no way he’s _always_ busy when Peter calls. Besides, he must at least listen to his messages and see that Peter’s crumbling and struggling. He needs some kind of reassurance - that he’s safe, that there’s nothing he needs to worry about. He hasn’t admitted any of this to May, because he doesn’t want to freak her out or for her to start worrying about him.  He doesn’t know who else he can talk to. Mr. Stark’s the only one who’ll understand him, but he hasn’t spoken to him or acknowledged him in the few weeks since they spoke on the rooftop, so it’s safe to assume he’s given up on Peter.

Peter has a sudden idea, which gives him a glimmer of hope that he tries to stop himself from crushing instantly while he dials the number and prays that it doesn’t just ring out.

“Happy!” he says, surprised, “You picked up?”

“You haven’t called me in months, kid. I missed you,” Happy replies, and Peter feels a bit guilty.

“Oh, yeah, uh…Mr. Stark gave me his number after…everything.”

“Really?” Happy doesn’t hide the surprise in his voice and Peter can’t figure out if that means he’s special for having Mr. Stark’s number or if Happy knows Peter doesn’t mean that much to Mr. Stark that he’s surprised he’d actually give it to him, “So, what, is he getting your daily updates now?” Happy jokes, and Peter tries to laugh along but it just sounds fake and robotic.

“Actually, is there any way you can talk to him about that?” Peter asks, already feeling stupid for calling Happy about this, “I’ve been calling him and leaving loads of messages, but he never picks up or calls me back and it’s pretty important…for me…”

Happy is silent for a moment and Peter wants to hang up and forget he was ever so stupid. “Sure, kid. I’ll talk to him as soon as I can, but he’s a busy guy, he doesn’t always check his phone when he’s into something and can only respond to emergencies.”

“Yeah,” Peter says. Happy’s right, and he gets it but that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t sting. He knows he’s not important to Mr. Stark. “It’s important though, so please talk to him, if you can.”

“Sure thing, kid.”

 

* * *

 

Happy wasn’t wrong about Tony being busy; since hearing Peter’s first message he’d really thrown himself into working on the new suit. He’s sure Peter was just worried and paranoid since being through so much with not only Thanos but the Vulture too, even though it doesn’t really compare to Thanos, it’s a lot for a fifteen year old kid to go through. Regardless, that didn’t stop Tony from getting paranoid himself, working every single possible defence into Peter’s new suit and multiple different warning signals that would be sent directly to any and all devices Tony would be using at the time.

Tony had also sat up for hours through his sleepless nights watching the footage from Peter’s suit to get the names of every single person he’d come into contact with and could have a possible vengeance against him, not only so he could work warnings into the suit but also so he can keep an eye on them to make sure they wouldn’t try anything with Peter.

He knows Peter's been calling him almost non-stop lately, but he can’t bear to pick up. He can’t reassure him or help him in anyway, he’ll probably just end up making things worse like he always does, and he can’t do that to Peter any more. He deserves better.

When Tony’s phone rings, he’s expecting Peter, not Happy. Luckily, he’s wrong and he actually picks up, mostly because he’s waiting for Happy to get back to him about some supplies that should be arriving that he needs for Peter’s suit. Sure, Happy has been getting annoyed at him for ignoring his calls and that would be a good reason to pick up, but it’s not like Tony cares.

“Oh, so you’ve decided to stop ignoring my calls now?” Happy asks as soon as Tony picks up the phone.

“I need those supplies,” Tony says, nonchalant as ever.

Tony can imagine the eye-roll that he’s sure is happening on the other end of the phone. “Maybe you should try picking up Peter’s calls once in a while, too.”

“How do you know I haven’t been?” Tony asks. It’s none of Happy’s business. Happy probably would, and should, agree on how much of a bad influence Tony is over Peter. He should appreciate the distance he’s putting between them.

“Because the kid’s just called me begging me to get you to stop ignoring him!” Happy says, clearly frustrated, “He seems shaken up, Tony.”

“I know,” Tony says, “I’ve been listening to his messages.”

“Then why the hell aren’t you calling him?!”

“Because I’m not good for the kid! Whatever’s happening, I’ll make it worse. He doesn’t need my influence or my path of destruction in his life.”

“Tony, he needs you.”

“Yeah, well, he shouldn’t.”

“It’s too late for that now, don’t you think?”

Tony sighs, “He’s getting too close to me.” That’s not strictly a lie, but it’s mostly he’s getting too close to Peter.

“And, what? You’re afraid of the kid getting to know you?”

“No, I-” Tony sighs again, running his free hand through his hair, “everyone I care about dies, or almost dies, or constantly gets put in danger that I can’t save them from. You know how much Pepper’s been put through, because of me. I can’t risk getting too close to Peter and doing that to him, too.”

Happy sighs now, “You can’t just cut him out of your life, Tony.”

“I’ve already lost him once,” Tony says, his voice breaking and he mentally swears at himself for letting himself get emotional again.

“And now he’s losing you.”

“For Christ’s sake, Happy,” Tony says before hanging up, throwing his phone down on the table and putting his head in his hands. Happy is right, and Tony hates it so, _so_ much because he wishes this could work, and that he could save Peter from being dragged into the mess of Tony Stark’s life.

Tony picks up his phone again, sighing shakily. He opens up Peter’s contact, staring at the letters and numbers until they blur and become meaningless. He wants to call him, he wants to reassure him, he wants to make sure nothing can ever hurt him. But that means not getting any closer to him. Everyone he’s ever fought have always exploited his weaknesses and he’s always tried to keep those to a minimum, even if that meant distancing himself from everyone but Pepper, and sometimes her, too. But now, if someone knew there was a kid he cared about, Peter would never be safe again, and Tony can’t let that happen.

Tony puts his phone down again; Peter will have to learn to manage without Tony, for his own good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't decide whether to make Michelle have a bigger part in this (aka romantic) or not so please let me know what you think and you guys can all decide for me.


	6. Chapter 6

When Tony opens his eyes, he’s on Titan. Almost instantly it feels like his hearts about to give out.

“Peter?” he calls out, looking around.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter replies. Tony looks behind him to see Peter in his suit, looking scared. “I-” Peter starts, before he drops down to his knees.

“Kid-” Tony says, scrambling over to him so they’re both on their knees, face-to-face. He holds Peter up with one arm, feeling how heavy and weak he is, his other hand holding Peter’s neck. “I’m here, you’re not going anywhere, okay?”

“Please-” Peter says, his voice breaking, “Please don’t let me go. Please, Mr. Stark. I’m scared.”

“I know, I’m here. I’ve got you,” he wraps his arms round Peter, holding him tight against him, “I’m not letting you go again.”

“Please, sir-” Peter repeats, clinging onto Tony almost bruisingly tight, but when his grip starts to falter and weaken, Tony’s heart jumps out of his chest.

“No, no, no,” Tony begs, feeling tears welling up, “please, not again.”

“You promised,” Peter says when Tony pulls back, looking him in the eyes with tears pouring down his cheeks and it breaks Tony’s heart, shattering it into millions of pieces all over again.

“I’m sorry, kid, I’m sorry,” Tony tries to grab onto Peter but he can already see him breaking apart at the edges, slowly disintegrating in Tony’s grip, “I’m sorry,” he cries, before Peter disappears entirely. He let him down again, all he ever does is hurt Peter and put him at risk. _He_ should be the one taken by Thanos, not Peter. Peter doesn’t deserve any of this, he’s just a smart kid that Tony used for _his_ fight, not Peter’s. And now Peter’s in this mess and nothing Tony does seems to get him out of it.

Tony wakes up with a gasp, drenched in sweat and his heart pounding a mile a minute. “Oh, shit,” Tony says, sitting up, heaving his breaths in and out, “shit, shit, shit.” 

When Tony finally manages to get the energy to stand up, he swaps his shirt out for a dry one, making sure to be quiet enough to not wake Pepper, and immediately goes into paranoid-mode. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., where's Peter?”

He knows he’s at home, in bed, hopefully, seeing as it’s just past 3am. But, it doesn’t hurt to check, to calm at least some of Tony’s stress.

“I’m not sure, boss, he’s not at home and he’s not wearing his suit.”

“What?” Tony’s heart really stops then. It’s _3am_ , what could he be doing? “Is his aunt at home?”

“I believe so.”

“Shit,” Tony says, again, “shit,” his brain can’t even move fast enough to think what he should do. He wouldn’t be surprised that Peter would sneak out in the middle of the night as Spider-Man, but without his suit? Tony has no idea where to even start.

“Oh, god,” Tony says, sitting down. He wants to wake up Pepper; she would know what to do. Except, that would mean having to explain who Peter is and what he actually means to Tony, and that would take too long when Peter could be anywhere right now.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., how can I find him?”

“I can run through security footage for the city and see if he’s been picked up by anything.”

“Okay, do that,” Tony says, taking deep breaths to try and figure this out, “if he’s with someone, that means this is urgent.”

“Yes, boss.”

 

* * *

 

When Peter wakes up screaming from another nightmare, his first thought is how much he needs to get out of the apartment. He checks that he didn’t wake May up, then throws on a hoodie so he doesn’t freeze, before climbing out the window and dropping to the street. He doesn’t want the front door to wake up May.

He does pause, for a moment, to consider whether or not he should take his suit. It would make it easier to just escape from his thoughts for a while, but he knows that Mr. Stark will definitely be tracking his suit, and would probably be alerted if he put it on at 2am. The last person he wants to talk to right now is him, after he’s been ignoring Peter’s calls for weeks, even after Happy passed on the message. So he _clearly_ doesn’t care about anything more than a possible damaged suit.

So Peter doesn’t take the suit, just takes off at a full sprint down the sidewalk, letting the events of his disjointed recurring dreams flash through his head, knowing if he ignores them they’re just going to eat away at him even more. He focuses on the feeling of his shoes pounding against the pavement while images of Thanos flash through his head - the feeling of being slammed against the ground and his breath thrown out of his body, the fear that went with trying to save everyone, seeing Mr. Stark - someone who seemed invincible in his eyes - get hurt and beaten, and the even worse feeling that came with slowly being torn apart and knowing how much he’d disappointed Mr. Stark.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mr. Stark's voice says, and Peter stops in his tracks, turning to see the Iron Man suit behind him. He has no idea how long he’s been out for, it feels like five minutes.

“I’m going for a run,” Peter replies, turning back again and starting to run.

“No,” Mr. Stark says, flying up and landing in front of him, firmly putting a metal hand against Peter’s chest to hold him back, “what the _hell_ are you doing?” he repeats as his mask retracts, revealing his real, live face. Peter needs to stop being surprised when Mr. Stark actually shows up.

“What, I’m not allowed to have my own life?” Peter regrets being rude already, but he’s struggling to hide his anger towards Mr. Stark and it goes against everything he’s ever been taught to be rude to not only an adult, but someone that’s done so much for him. He isn’t under any obligation to do even more for him, Peter really doesn’t have any right to be mad.

“You call me every single day paranoid and freaked out, but you go out at 3am, putting yourself in _more_ danger than you already do, and you expect me to not be concerned?”

“So you’re actually listening to my messages?” Peter questions, “I wouldn’t have known, since you ignored all of them.”

“Don’t turn this on me, kid. I’m _trying_ to protect you, but it’s hard when you’re pulling shit like this!”

“How is ignoring me freaking out that I’m in danger protecting me?!” Peter catches himself before his voice breaks into a yell. He really shouldn’t be acting like this; he doesn’t want Mr. Stark taking his suit again.

“Because you shouldn’t be in my life, kid. And the more you are, the more danger you’re in. So I’m making sure you’re not,” it kills Tony to tell Peter this, because he knows the kid won’t take it well - he’s seen how much he looks up to him, but that’s exactly why Tony needs to stop this.

“Okay,” Peter says, numbing himself and removing his emotions from this situation the best he can so he doesn’t get upset in front of Mr. Stark. He doesn’t want to make himself look like more of a kid, he clearly already thinks he’s too young and stupid to look after himself and be a part of his life. “Then don’t cut me out and try and come back to tell me what to do when you’re not happy with it.”

“I’m not,” Tony says, the kid has gone robotic and it almost scares him, “I’m checking that you’re alright and you hadn’t be kidnapped.”

“Yeah, well that’s obviously not your responsibility any more. You can’t pick and choose where you have a part in my life, so you’re either in or out.”

“Peter-”

“I’m gonna go home,” Peter interrupts before he has to hear more excuses because he knows how Mr. Stark really feels about him now. He doesn’t care, and Peter never should’ve convinced himself that he was anything important.

“Kid, please.”

“It’s fine, I’m not your responsibility anymore,” Peter says, dodging round the suit and making his way home, trying to hold back the emotions welling up in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise everyone will be happy eventually


	7. Chapter 7

“Karen,” Peter says, sat on his bed in his suit, the morning after he fought with Tony, “do you have power to change protocols in the suit?”

“I don’t, Peter, I can adjust some settings, for you, but only Mr. Stark has power over certain things.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” Peter mumbles, getting his phone out.

 _Hey,_ he messages Ned, _wanna be my guy in the chair again?_

It doesn’t take long for Ned to reply with an enthusiastic _‘Hell yes!’_ and within half an hour he’s at Peter’s door, looking excited and ready.

“I was planning to study for that chemistry test this weekend, but this is way, _way_ cooler,” Ned says as soon as he walks in the front door, making Peter cringe because May was sat _right there_ and Ned could’ve just been cool for _two seconds_.

May frowns at both of them, “What are you two up to?”

“Oh, Ned just got this cool new game on his laptop that we’re gonna try out,” Peter makes up, supported by Ned pulling out his laptop and grinning.

“Okay, but I still want you to study later, Peter,” she gives him a look that Peter knows means she’ll be checking up on him, “and you should too, Ned, don’t let your grades drop for a game.”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Parker,” Ned nods, before quickly dragging Peter off to his room, definitely more excited than Peter is. “So,” Ned says as soon as the door shuts behind him, “are you gonna go out and do some cool Spider-Man stuff? And then I can tell you all the info about the bad guys so you know how to stop them!”

Peter sighs, but also kind of laughs. He would love that, and wishes being a ‘superhero’ was as glamorous as Ned imagined. “I’m not going out at the moment, but I want you to make some changes to the suit again.”

“Oh no, Peter,” Ned says, “I don’t think I should.”

“Come on, why not?”

“We shouldn’t mess with how it’s made, Tony Stark knows what he’s doing!”

“Yeah, well, me and Mr. Stark aren’t exactly on speaking terms at the moment,” Peter sighs. It hurts to remember the night before, and he doesn’t want to think about what it means for his and Mr. Stark’s relationship, or even just what Mr. Stark thinks of him.

“Wait,” Ned stares at Peter for a moment, “you had a fight with _Tony Stark_?”

“Yeah, he’s been ignoring all my calls and then I went out for a run last night because I needed to think, and he got mad at me for putting myself in danger! When I’ve been calling him for _weeks_ about possible danger!”

“Yeah, but if he knew you were out and where you were, then he must be keeping an eye on you to make sure you’re safe. He probably knows what he’s doing.”

“Don’t defend him!” Peter says, feeling betrayed and pouting at Ned, “He still shouldn’t ignore my calls!”

“Okay, yeah, but what are you gonna do, mess up the suit to get back at him?”

“I wanna remove any connection he has to the suit, so he can’t know anything about what I’m doing or what’s happening.”

Ned frowns, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Pleeease, Ned,” Peter begs, sitting down, “Mr. Stark doesn’t care about me anyway, it’s not like he’ll even notice.” Peter knows he’ll notice. Peter also tells himself that definitely isn’t the main reason he’s doing this.

Ned sighs, but sits down and opens his laptop. “So, what do you want me to do?”

“Well, can we, like, go through the programming and just see what there is?”

“Okay,” Ned agrees, and it takes them a few minutes to set up and get him into the suit but they manage it, or, mostly, Ned manages it, while Peter lies along the bottom bunk experimenting with throwing a tennis ball and using his webs. So, mostly, making a mess.

“Hey, I’ve done it,” Ned says from where he’s sat on the floor, against the bed.

“What does it say?” Peter rolls over so he can look over Ned’s shoulder.

“Well, for one, it’s set to send, like, a bunch of alerts Mr. Stark if pretty much any tiny thing happens. That wasn’t there before.”

Peter rolls his eyes, trying not to think about it too much.

“I think he does care about you, Peter,” Ned comments, voicing exactly what Peter doesn’t want to get his hopes up by thinking.

“He doesn’t,” Peter says, cutting off any ideas before they go too far, “he’s just worried about the suit.”

“I don’t think checking that your heart rate doesn’t get too fast or too slow is anything to do with the suit,” Ned says, and Peter tries to ignore it, “Tony Stark cares about you, this is so cool.”

“Shut up, he really doesn’t,” Peter says, “just get rid of it all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, anything that gives him any information about me or my location or anything, get rid of it.”

“Whatever you say, Peter.”

 

* * *

 

“Boss, someone appears to be tampering with the Spider-Man suit. You told me to tell you if anyone accessed or tried to change it’s programming,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announces over one of Tony and Pepper’s first breakfasts in a while, not that Tony’s feeling exactly talkative or social. Which Pepper has, of course, noticed.

“Shit,” Tony says, automatically assuming the worst. Someone could’ve gotten Peter, and they’re trying to manipulate him or the suit, “where is it?”

“In his apartment.”

Tony’s heart stops racing but quickly gets replaced with annoyance. Peter’s hacked into the suit again, no doubt trying to distance himself from Tony after last night. Tony should’ve expected this, really.

“Please don’t run off,” Pepper says, looking at Tony with her typical badly-disguised-worry-behind-the-eyes look.

“I won’t,” Tony says, and Pepper doesn’t bother to hide her shock, “he’s his own person, he can do what he wants.”

“Yeah, well it would be good if I knew who ‘he’ is,” Pepper comments, raising her eyebrows at Tony expectantly.

“It’s not my secret to tell.”

Pepper sighs, “I know, but you don’t tell me anything about this kid and yet whenever anything happens with him you’re more stressed than I’ve ever seen you.”

“Cause he’s a kid, he’s my responsibility.”

“Not everyone’s your responsibility, Tony.”

“When I have the ability to protect them, they are.”


	8. Chapter 8

Peter feels freer, in a way, since he got Ned to adjust his suit. But it still doesn’t help with the paranoia, if anything, it’s just gotten worse. At least, before, he knew Mr. Stark would always come if he got in serious trouble, but now Peter has nothing. Even if Mr. Stark cared enough to help Peter, he wouldn’t even know if anything was happening.

It’s too late for Peter to go back now, and he’s sure Mr. Stark is well aware of what he’s done to the suit, and it’s not like he’s tried to do anything to correct it, so that just proves to Peter that he’s stopped caring. If he ever did.

Peter goes out in the suit more often now, not really cause of the freedom, but mostly as if challenging his paranoia to come true. If anything actually is out there, he can confront it and get this over with, finally. He’s back again to how he was before everything happened, going out the second school finishes and only coming back just in time for dinner so Aunt May doesn’t get too mad at him. Even though she knows his identity, now, that doesn’t make it any easier because it just means she knows what he’s prioritising. At least the crime rate in Queens is doing great, even if Peter isn’t.

“Hey, Peter,” May’s voice interrupts Peter’s thought, because, yeah, they are still sitting at dinner. Peter really needs to stop himself from zoning out. “Are you getting enough sleep?” May asks, frowning at him.

“Yeah, May, just, uh, MJ's working us all really hard for Academic Decathlon,” Peter lies, not wanting her to start worrying about everything else that’s going on.

“The competition isn’t for a few more weeks, isn’t it?” May questions, and Peter tries to hold back his sigh. Why does Aunt May have to pay attention to everything and be an actual decent guardian?

“Yeah, but she’s super nervous, cause it’s her first year as captain…”

“Ah,” May nods, thank god, “it’s a shame what happened with Liz.”

“Yeah…” Peter agrees, feeling sick remembering everything that happened with Liz, and more importantly, her dad, “it sucks.”

May sighs, noticing Peter just poking the rest of his food round his plate, not really touching it, “I’ll clear up, you go lie down; you look like you need it.”

Peter manages a smile, “Thanks, Aunt May.”

As soon as Peter gets to his room he wants to put his suit on and get out again, but he knows May will notice if he’s not here when she goes to bed, so he’ll just have to wait it out until she sleeps and he can sneak out.

Peter lies down on his bed, closing his eyes and just resting for a minute, because Aunt May is right, and he really does need it. He tries to not think about anything too much, keeping his head clear and somewhat stress-free. He won’t sleep, he’ll just wait for a while…

“Night, Peter!” Aunt May yells from the hallway, and Peter shocks awake, sitting bolt upright and smashing his head against the top bunk.

“Night!” Peter manages to yell back, wincing through the pain and rubbing his head. He feels groggy and sleepy from the accidental nap, and it would be so easy to just get changed into his pyjamas and fall straight back to sleep. Part of him really, really wants to, but the other, less reasonable part tells him he still needs to go out. Maybe tonight he’ll finally be able to confront his fears, if he can find them.

He gets his suit on quickly, carefully sticking his head out into the hall to check May’s light is off before ducking back in, pulling on his mask and sliding out the window.

It’s a cool evening, and it’s a relief for Peter after his nap, now that he’s gotten used to always waking up in a full sweat even if he can’t remember the nightmare. His head still doesn’t feel too great, and it’s throwing his balance off a bit as he passes from building to building, but he doesn’t let it faze him and just hopes it passes in a few minutes.

The night seems uneventful, and he can’t really spot anything in the street from the tops of the buildings, so Peter decides to drop down to street level for a while, and if there’s still nothing he’ll go home and finally get back to sleep. Peter takes a deep breath, trying to ignore the wooziness and throbbing in his head. Ignoring the pain and the rational part of him telling him that he shouldn’t be doing this when his head isn’t right, Peter swings as far down as he can, then trying and failing to catch himself on the wall and falling the last few meters into the alley below. He mentally curses himself for being an idiot, unsteadily pulling himself up to standing, before he’s shoved _hard_ from behind, his breath being pushed out of him as he falls face-first to the floor.

“What the-?” he starts, trying to turn himself round when he feels a heavy kick to his side. _Shit_ , he thinks, his head not being helped by the second hit to the floor. Peter’s finding it hard to get his thoughts together or even figure out how to get up and fight.

“Not fighting back now, huh?” a voice above Peter says, and it takes Peter a moment to connect the voice and the foot abusing him. A hand grabs him suddenly, dragging him up and slamming him against the wall, “no brave superhero moves?” the person in front of Peter says. The blurry person. Peter tries _really_ hard to focus on them, blinking hard and squinting at them. It takes him a moment, but as soon as he does it clicks and his stomach sinks in fear.

“Remember me, huh?” the guy asks, clearly smug.

“You were on that boat.”

“Yeah, you got me arrested, asshole.” A punch to the stomach is enough for Peter to want to really throw up. “And you fucked up my eye.” And another one.

“What do you want?” Peter manages. He really wish he could fight back against this dude. He _should_ be able to fight back against him, but he’s managed to pick his worst day.

“I want you to pay for what you’ve done,” he grabs Peter’s head and smashes it against the brick behind him, “I’ve been watching you, you know.” So at least Peter’s paranoia was real. “I know who you are.”

_Shit._

The guy grabs the top of Peter’s mask, and before he can even react it’s being pulled over his head a tossed somewhere behind them. Peter gasps at the cold air and tries not to throw up just thinking about the stupid situation he’s managed to get into.

“I knew it,” the guy _really_ looks smug now, “Peter fucking Parker, you stupid kid,” is the last thing Peter hears before he gets a square punch to the face, and everything goes dark.

 

* * *

 

Peter wakes up freezing, coughing what feels like his guts all over the pavement. He tries to ignore the red stain when he pulls himself up. _Shit_. He feels like crying, he doesn’t know what to do. He needs Mr. Stark, and he probably would’ve been here normally if Peter hadn’t been so _stupid_. Peter gives up trying to stand up and drops back down to the floor, leaning against the wall behind him. Every part of him hurts, he just wants to cry and give up. He has to get home, so May doesn’t worry, at least.

Everything freezes for a second, as details slowly click into place. Someone, who _really_ hates him knows who Peter is. They didn’t kill him, but they want to hurt him, so they obviously want to do worse instead of or before killing him. They know who he is, so they probably know where he lives, which means they know where Aunt May lives, and it’s probably not hard to figure out that she’s the only person he has left that’s still alive.

Shit, _shit, shit_.

Peter stumbles forward, standing up and grabbing his mask that is thankfully still there. He pulls it half-heartedly over his head, trying not to wince too much as it drags over the broken skin and bruising. It takes a lot for Peter to get to the top of the building, but he manages it and he starts making his way back across Queens, desperate to get home. He doesn’t know how long he’s been unconscious and what they could be planning.

Peter can tell something’s wrong as soon as he starts to get close. Something’s really, _really_ wrong. As he gets closer, he can see the sky and surrounding buildings lit up orange and his brain can’t even fully comprehend the red flames leaping into the sky. He moves faster, making himself feel worse, but he can’t think about that. He just needs to think about May. 

When he’s the next building over, he can really see how bad it is. He can feel the burning heat from where he is, and the fire reaches far higher than the building does. He can see where his apartment is, right in the centre of the flames. _Shit_. Peter doesn’t think twice before he jumps across, smashing straight through a window. He misjudges it and ends up in the corridor outside his apartment, not that it’s easy to tell from the thick, heavy smoke. He manages to find the door and rams his shoulder into it, breaking the burnt door easily. He can’t see a thing inside the apartment from the flames and the smoke. He can hardly breath and his skin is struggling under the heat, but he perseveres because he _needs_ to find May. He doesn’t know where he is and can’t orientate himself to figure out where May’s room is, so he goes to one side and hopes for the best. A voice in the back of his head reminds him, far too late, that in a fire you’re supposed to stay low to the ground so you don’t breathe in too much smoke, and by the time he can think about trying to crawl instead he’s already collapsing to the floor for the second time that night.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's finally escaped their writer's block?

“Mr. Stark,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice interrupts some meaningless work, “there appears to be an emergency. Mr. Parker’s suit is currently under extreme levels of heat.”

“Where is he?” Tony says, not even thinking twice about it.

“His apartment, boss.”

“Shit,” Peter could be asleep, “get me a suit,” in the seconds it takes for the suit to arrive and cover Tony, he has just enough time to remember Peter removing all the emergency alerts Tony had put in his suit, except this was a last-minute remembered possibility, so it wasn’t with the others, thank god.

Tony crosses the city as quickly as possible, flying straight into the fire where he hopes is the right floor. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., search the building for any people.”

“The building appears to be empty, though you have designed your suits to be hidden from searches like this.”

“He’s not in his suit, is he?”

“It appears as though he is.”

Tony can manage a brief sigh of semi-relief; at least the suit can protect him from the flames. “Where?”

“The floor above.”

“Is he conscious?” Tony asks, immediately making him way up.

“No, boss. He’s breathing, but it’s shallow.”

Tony feels like he’s going to be sick. He manages to get to the next floor, and F.R.I.D.A.Y. guides him through the smoke, showing a small figure on the floor that the sight of fills Tony with both relief and panic. Tony picks him up, smashing the window before he flies through it so he doesn’t hurt Peter in the process. They fly back across the city, and Tony tries not to let his shaking hands drop Peter.

 

* * *

 

Tony paces back and forth outside the room he put Peter in. He wanted to take him to a hospital, but he knew better because he couldn’t risk them figuring out that Peter isn’t exactly a typical human and Tony _definitely_ doesn’t trust the little protection he’d be under at the hospital, so he called Helen Cho and has Peter set up in one of his guest rooms with all of her medical gear. She wouldn’t let Tony come in with her, probably because she could see how worked up he was and didn’t want him in her way, but he couldn’t stand waiting to see what’s happening.

“Okay,” Helen says as she comes out of the room, shutting the door behind her, and Tony wants to breathe a sigh of relief if it weren’t for still not knowing how Peter is, “he’s stable. He inhaled a lot of smoke, which isn’t good so hopefully his enhanced healing will help. He needs to be kept on oxygen for a least a few days, but I can monitor him remotely to check his progress but I’ll need you to let me know if he gets worse or isn’t improving.”

“Okay,” Tony takes a deep breath, “but he’s okay?”

“He’s okay,” Helen gives him a small smile, “he’s under sedation at the moment so don’t try and wake him, but stay close for when he does wake up. Here are some painkillers if he’s experiencing any pain. Let me know if you use them.”

“Yeah, okay,” Tony can only manage to pay attention because he knows it’s important for Peter but it’s hard to think through the mix of relief and worry clouding his head.

“Do you know if anything happened to him before the fire?”

“Uh, I’m not sure,” Tony admits. He hates himself for letting Peter distance himself when Tony could’ve kept an eye on him still.

“He appears to have a moderate concussion and a couple of cracked ribs, which does make a bit difficult because they tend to impact breathing as it is, so you’ll need to make sure he’s not struggling with breathing too much and takes the painkillers if he needs it.”

Tony nods along, the guilt already starting to consume him.

“I’ll be back to check on him soon, call me if you need anything at all, okay?”

“Yeah,” Tony says, distant, “thanks,” he says, bringing himself back for long enough to say goodbye to Dr. Cho and show her out. The second the door shuts behind her, he’s back to Peter’s room, and feels nervous going inside. 

Tony didn’t see Peter without his suit before Dr. Cho arrived, and he doesn’t know what to expect, but the second he seems he feels like he’s going to be sick. Again.

One of Peter’s eyes is surrounded by a deep, purple bruise with a harsh cut across his eyebrow, still crusted with blood. His whole face is an ashy white, his lips looking pale in contrast with the blood dried at the corners. His suit is still on his bottom half, the top pulled out of the way for the bandages wrapped round his midsection, but Tony can still see the dark bruises creeping out of the edges of the bandages.

Tony pulls up a chair next to the bed, making himself comfortable. He doesn’t want to leave Peter’s side until he’s awake and Tony knows for sure that he’s okay. And even then, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to leave. He feels so overwhelmed with guilt; he pushed Peter away and it just put him at more risk. If he wanted to keep him safe from the danger surrounding Tony he should’ve never approached the kid in the first place because it’s far too late now. Tony needs to keep Peter close so he can keep an eye on him, to keep him safe and protected. He never wants to let him out of his sight ever again.

 

* * *

 

“Mr. Stark?” Peter groans, blinking and frowning at him in confusion. “Where am I?”

“We’re at my house, kid,” Tony tells him, trying to hide his relief at Peter being awake, “you were in a fire.”

Peter sits bolt upright, then winces and groans in pain before he lets himself lie down again, “What happened to Aunt May? Is she here too?”

Shit, Tony should’ve known he was forgetting something. “Sorry, kid. There was no one else in the building when I got you.”

“I was trying to find her, but the smoke…”

“I know,” Tony attempts a reassuring smile, but he knows he’s never good at anything like this, “there were a lot of ambulances outside. I’ll call the hospital and see.” Tony starts to get up so he doesn’t have to talk in front of the kid, just in case.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter says, just before he leaves, “Why didn’t you take me to the hospital?”

“You had your suit on, and they would notice your accelerated healing, or they could’ve taken blood tests,” Tony lies. Sure, he did want to protect Peter’s identity, but mostly wanted to keep an eye on him himself. And something about the smile Peter tries to hide tell him that he already knows that.


	10. Chapter 10

Tony comes back into the room looking serious, and any positive feelings Peter was having immediately drop away.

“She’s alive,” Tony prioritises, “but, uh…well, luckily they managed to get to her before she suffered any severe burns, but that fire had _a lot_ of smoke-”

“What are you saying?” Peter asks, feeling just as scared as when he was in the fire himself, looking for her. 

“She had a seizure, because of the smoke. She’s in a coma.”

Peter’s head starts spinning and his chest feels hollow. A _coma_. That's big and scary and nothing Peter's dealt with before. He's dealt with a lot -  _too much_ \- death in his life, but a coma is different. It's so uncertain. That's the scary thing.

"You okay, kid?"

“Can I, um, just…be alone for a bit.” Peter's trying to hold back tears. He knows this isn't the end of any hope, but it feels like it. It feels like he should give up now, and that means starting to mourn. He needs to hold onto the fact that she's still alive.

“Sure thing, kid,” Tony says, “I can take you to go visit her later, okay?”

Peter nods, not meeting Mr. Stark’s eyes. He waits until the door shuts behind him to let out a shuddering breath and his tears to start spilling down his cheeks. _This is my fault,_ Peter can’t help but think. He knows that fire couldn’t have been an accident; coincidences like that don’t happen. Which means because of what Peter did, May got hurt. And could end up dying.  _Shit_. Peter wants to hit himself, or go back in time, or just throw up. He doesn’t know what to do and everything that he’s thinking and feeling is so unbelievably overwhelming that he can hardly even process what’s happened. 

The things he know for sure:

        Aunt May, his only living relative, is alive.

        Aunt May, the closest thing he has to a mother, is in a _coma_.

        This is _all_ his fault.

        The only place he has to live is destroyed, the only person he has to look after him almost with it.

_What’s going to happen to me?_

Peter tries to tell himself that he’s not selfish. Nothing is changing the fact that he’s consumed with guilt and worry about May, and nothing could break him more than him losing her forever. But she’s still alive at the moment, in a coma. Meaning she can’t really be Peter’s guardian anymore. For now, at least. So not only is Peter homeless, but he’s even more of an orphan than before. He has no family, nowhere to go. Sure, Mr. Stark brought him to his house instead of a hospital. But Peter will get better, soon enough. So his hospital stay will be over. And he’ll have nowhere to go.

“Hey, kid,” Mr. Stark says, somehow having come into the room silently, which would’ve scared Peter shitless if it wasn’t buried under his embarrassment as he tries to wipe away and hide his not-so-subtle tears. “I know you said you wanted to be alone, but you didn’t sound so good.”

 _Great_ , he was crying loud enough to be heard through the door.

“I know it’s hard, but-”

“It was my fault,” Peter interrupts.

“No, it wasn’t.”

“It was.”

Peter turns to look at Mr. Stark, and he sees a brief flicker of questioning in his eyes that gets pushed away, replaced with worry for Peter.

“She’s gonna be fine, okay?” Tony tries an attempt of reassuring, instead.

“How do you know?” Peter asks, somewhat accusingly, “Even if she wakes up, what if she isn’t okay?”

Tony sighs; he has no idea how to do this. Sure, he’s been through similar difficult things, but that doesn’t make him any better at it.

“I don’t,” Tony admits, “but I’m here, no matter what.”

Peter tries to hold back more tears. There’s no way he can let himself break down in front of Mr. Stark, because he knows what that really means; that means he’s here to try and comfort Peter while he’s in his house, and he’ll make sure his gets healthy and doesn’t do anything stupid afterwards. But that definitely doesn’t mean he’s going to be there when Peter has nowhere to go, no house and no parents and probably gets dumped into a foster home until his aunt wakes up. _If_ she wakes up. Otherwise, he’ll be stuck there until he’s eighteen. Peter feels sick again and it’s getting so much harder to hold back tears.

“Can I go see her?” Peter asks, trying to be subtle about wiping his eyes.

“Peter…”

“You said you would take me,” Peter says. He needs to see her, needs to be able to see for himself that she’s still _there_ and she’s okay, and he wants to be able to protect her.

“Not yet, though,” Mr. Stark says, and Peter feels a surge of anger just powerful enough to overpower the guilt and sadness, briefly, at least. “You need to rest, Pete. The doctor said you had to rest for at _least_ a few days. I’m not risking you getting more hurt.”

“She’s all I have, Mr. Stark. Please,” Peter begs, and the sincerity and sadness in his eyes is almost enough to sway Tony, until he stops for a moment and takes in the bruises and blood, the still terrifyingly pale skin and lips, and the oxygen being pumped through a tube into Peter’s nose, all over again. He can’t let this get worse, Peter needs to get better. Tony can’t be responsible for more of Peter’s hurt.

“I can’t. I’m sorry, kid.” He really is, but he knows from the look Peter’s giving him that he doesn’t believe that. But he doesn’t have to; he just needs to be safe.

“Fine,” Peter says, looking away, not meeting Tony’s eyes.

“I can keep you company, though. If you want.”

“No, thanks,” Peter says, still looking away. Tony tries not to let the hurt show; this is what it’s like looking after a teenager, he guesses.

“Let me know if you need anything. Or you can ask F.R.I.D.A.Y., you can just talk and she’ll…hear you…” Tony says, “I’ll come check on you later.”

Peter doesn’t reply, so Tony gives up, leaving silently and closing the door behind him. He lets out a deep sigh as soon the doors shut, hoping Peter doesn’t end up hating him more than he already does.

Inside, Peter’s still trying to hold back tears but takes a breath, calming himself. He needs to see her; he really couldn’t care less about his own health. He spends a while psyching himself up to get up. Mr. Stark wasn’t wrong - even though Peter doesn’t agree with his decision - Peter does need rest; he feels exhausted and weak and in so much pain. But he needs to keep Aunt May safe and check that she’s okay. He doesn’t know what the intention of whoever started the fire was, maybe Aunt May was supposed to die and someone will show up at the hospital to correct the mistake.

Peter tries to calm himself down because he knows he’s just getting himself closer and closer to really freaking out and he can’t afford to have Mr. Stark come check on him now. He forces himself to stand up, pushing through the pain and feelings of panic about May. The panic starts to rise up again when he realises he’s still in his suit, but doesn’t have his mask. _Crap_ , Peter thinks, he can’t just walk into the hospital in his full Spider-Man getup with his face on display. The fact that there’s a kid staying with Tony Stark will probably be enough to cause issues. Let alone that kid being Spider-Man.

 _Okay_ , Peter tells himself, _there must be something_. He looks around the room, and spots a pile of clothes on one of the shelves. They weren’t laid out for Peter, but there’s not exactly any other clothes in what looks like a guest room. Looking through the clothes, Peter realises they must be some of Mr. Starks’ clothes that he’d picked out that might fit Peter. Peter tries to ignore the warm feeling in his chest from realising it, reminding himself of his anger towards Mr. Stark. For not letting him see May, for trying to control him, for ignoring his calls. Pretty much everything that’s happened since Peter died. And came back.

Peter pushes forward, painfully and slowly changing out of his suit and into the clothes that look the least like they belong to Tony Stark, which isn’t easy. Peter looks at himself through his phone camera, trying not to wince at the dark bruise covering a lot of his face. He checks everything else looks okay before considering the tube attached to his nose; he hesitates, just for a moment, before he pulls it out and throws it down on the bed. He doubts he really needs it, anyway.

After a while spent at the door trying to figure out if Mr. Stark is outside, including debating whether or not asking F.R.I.D.A.Y. where he is would help or make him more likely to get caught. He assumes F.R.I.D.A.Y. is like Mr. Stark’s Karen, and Karen would probably tell Peter.

Eventually, Peter gives up and just goes outside. Either he’ll get caught or he won’t, and, by some miracle, he doesn’t. Peter lets out a sigh of relief, quickly spotting the front door and moving as quickly and quietly as he can until he’s outside and free.

Now time for the actual hardest part; getting to the hospital.


	11. Chapter 11

“Peter, it’s getting late,” Tony says as he walks into his room, “I thought maybe we should order some food-”

Tony stops in his tracks when he notices Peter’s absence, his suit on the floor, the clothes Tony had found for him left out, and worst of all the oxygen tank that he should be hooked up to at all times is still sitting there.

“Shit, shit,” Tony says, wanting to hit himself. He really doesn’t know how to look after anyone. His _only_ responsibility was to make sure the kid stayed resting and getting oxygen and he couldn’t  even manage that. _This_ is why Pepper didn’t want to have kids.

Tony knows straight away Peter must’ve tried to go to the hospital alone, and as much as he wants to take his suit, he knows it won’t be convenient for bringing Peter back. So, he grabs the oxygen tank and heads for his car, instead.

He _almost_ walks straight past Peter when he goes out the front door, not only because he isn’t exactly looking, but Peter’s sat on the floor, leant against the wall next to the door. Not exactly the most noticeable; he’s not the biggest kid.

“Peter?” Tony says, any anger disappearing to make room the worry. Peter definitely looks worse; Tony doesn’t know how long he’d been out here, he’d left Peter alone for a few hours, and if he was planning to sneak out Tony can’t imagine he’d have waited long to do it. He’s just relieved he didn’t actually get further than the front door. “Are you okay?”

“I…I wanted to visit my aunt, but then when I got out I didn’t know how to get to the hospital and it freaked me out, and then it was really hard to breath without the thing, and…I…I’m sorry, Mr. Stark.”

Peter sounds breathless, tired and stressed and Tony really wishes he’d kept a better eye on him, “Don’t worry, kid,” Tony says while he starts to fix the oxygen back up, hoping he’s actually doing it right, “it’s in the past, now.”

“Are you mad at me?” he asks, looking scared and so innocent and Tony doesn’t think he could ever be mad at him for long. He doesn’t know how his dad was such a dick, sure, Tony definitely wasn’t as good of a kid as Peter, but still.

“Definitely not,” Tony says, “of course not.”

Peter doesn’t look very relieved, but accepts it.

“Lets get inside, it’s cold,” Tony says, noticing the cold himself and then seeing how much Peter is shivering. “Why didn’t you come in sooner?”

“I didn’t want you to yell at me.”

 _Wow_ , Tony thinks, feeling guilty. He doesn’t know if Peter is just overly cautious, or he’s already acting enough like his dad to make Peter react like this. He really, really hopes it’s not the latter.

“I’m never gonna yell at you, okay?” Tony says, helping him up and guiding him inside. _Breaking the cycle of shame_.

“You did the other night.”

Tony tries not to sigh, getting Peter sat and settled on the couch with a blanket before he says anything. “I know, and I’m sorry about that,” Tony pauses, not knowing how to continue. “Listen, kid. I’ve been doing this for a lot longer than you have, and I’ve seen a lot and been through a lot that I wish I hadn’t. So many people that are close to me get hurt because of what I’ve done, or I end up hurting them.”

“It wouldn’t have really been your fault,” Peter interjects.

“Trust me, it was. I was a dick to a guy once and he made these evil superhumans that explode 9 times out of 10, and then kidnapped Pepper and turned her into one.”

“Just because you were mean to him?”

Tony shrugs, “I think he liked her too? Maybe.”

“Wait, so is she still…?”

“No, no,” Tony says, “god, no. The second that was done I made sure to figure out how to reverse it.”

Peter nods, huddling deeper into the blanket.

“The point is,” Tony continues, taking a deep breath, “I care about you, kid. And you were starting to get too close to me and I was afraid that meant something bad was going to happen to you. Again. So I didn’t want to risk it.”

“It wasn’t your fault that I died,” Peter says, frowning with genuine confusion.

“I brought you into this, so it is. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have been on that planet.”

“Yeah, but, I didn’t die because I was on that planet. I would’ve died on Earth from Thanos even if I’d never have met you.”

That makes Tony hesitate, because Peter _was_ kind of right, and he hadn’t really thought about it like that. “Maybe if Thanos had killed me before, that would’ve meant one less person had to die and that could’ve been you.”

“ _Even if_ that worked, that would be Dr. Strange’s fault. Not yours. And if it had just saved someone else, then weren’t you the one that brought everyone back? So I would still be dead if you’d died.”

Tony sighs, “Wow, you’re just always right, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” Peter says, managing a weak smile.

 

* * *

 

They stay on that couch for a long time, eventually ordering food and talking about a lot of things. Tony starts to learn to steer clear of talking about his aunt, because as soon as he does Peter start to retreat back into his shell and look sad enough to break Tony’s heart.

Soon, Peter even falls asleep, head dropping to rest on Tony’s shoulder. Anyone else, and Tony would’ve moved it even if it meant waking them up. But he wants Peter to feel safe, and he knows for sure he more than anyone definitely needs sleep. Tony almost starts to fall asleep too, but gets woken up by Peter moving in his sleep and mumbling, his eyes darting around behind his eyelids. Tony would like to think it was just a normal dream, but he could see and feel the tension in Peter’s face and body. Tony doesn’t know whether to wake him up or not. Can you wake up people having nightmares? Or is it babies you can’t wake up? Tony sighs, watching carefully to make sure Peter’s okay.

He almost starts to calm down for a bit, but then something definitely bad must be happening judging by the way Peter reacts, and Tony’s sure he hears his name, so he gives up and turns to try and wake him up.

“Peter?” Tony says, putting his hands on his shoulders and shaking him gently, pulling off the blanket the moment he notices how warm Peter is.

It doesn’t take long to wake Peter up, and when he does it’s with a gasp and he looks up at Tony with a look of pure fear. He stays like that, breathing heavily, for a moment, before lunging forward and clinging onto Tony tight. _Really_ tight, reminding Tony of how abnormally strong this kid is.

“It was Thanos-” Peter starts, “I was-”

“I know, Peter,” Tony says, “everything’s fine. You’re alive, I’m here.” Tony hugs him back tight, stroking the back of his hair, thankful he was actual there for Peter to wake up to.

“What if he comes back?” Peter asks, still holding tight.

“He’s never coming back, I promise,” Tony says, “I’m not letting _anyone_ get to you again."


	12. Chapter 12

Peter can’t believe how embarrassed he is. He had a nightmare in front of Tony Stark and clung onto him like some pathetic kid. As soon as he woke up and calmed down enough to realise what he was doing, he went and hid in his room straight away. Mr. Stark must think he’s so pathetic. Peter would make sure that he never ever fell asleep in front of Mr. Stark ever again, if it weren't for how nice it actually was to have him there. Normally after a nightmare he’d spend a lot longer calming down and being on edge and scared, but just having Mr. Stark there to reassure him and as some kind of protective presence helped Peter instantly. There was a reason Mr. Stark was the first person he went to when he felt something wrong on Titan.

“Peter?” Mr. Stark’s voice says, accompanied with a knock on the door and his head poking round, “How are you feeling?”

Peter tries not to look too embarrassed. He wishes Mr. Stark would actually think he was cool, and not just some pathetic kid that has nightmares and needs checking up on all the time. “I’m fine,” he says, trying to play it off like it was nothing.

“The nightmare-” Mr. Stark starts, coming in properly and coming to sit next to Peter on the bed.

“It’s nothing,” Peter interrupts, “it happens all the time, it’s not a big deal.”

“All the time?” Mr. Stark questions, his eyebrows drawn together in worry. Or maybe he’s frowning and reconsidering if Peter’s actually capable of being an avenger if he can’t even manage sleeping through the night.

Peter shrugs, “Since everything on Titan.”

“Do you want to, uh…talk about it?” Mr. Stark asks, obviously uncomfortable.

Peter shrugs again. It’d probably be good for him to talk about it, and he knows that, but he doesn’t want to make Mr. Stark even more uncomfortable. Or make him think of him as even more of a kid.

“I get nightmares too, you know.”

“ _You_?” Peter asks, finding it hard to believe, “Really?”

Now Mr. Stark shrugs, “It’s harder than it looks, saving the world.”

“Yeah,” Peter scoffs, “you can say that again.” This makes him stop for a moment, too, and think. He’s having nightmares after trying to save the world _once_ , twice if you include saving Mr. Stark’s stuff. He’s barely been doing this a couple years, and he’s been an avenger for even less time. Mr. Stark’s been doing this for _ten years_. Peter can’t even imagine how many nightmares that would create. Peter remembers seeing on the news so many different things about Iron Man and Tony Stark. Being kidnapped and targeted by multiple terrorists, being attacked by aliens and robots and even his own friends. What had stood out most for Peter, even as a kid, was seeing him sacrificing himself to redirect a nuclear missile into space. It stood out to him even more now, though; Peter’s death wasn’t exactly noble or sacrificial. He was just one of billions of others. He didn’t sacrifice himself to save New York and hundreds and thousands of lives. Seeing that sacrifice when he was so young impacted a lot, but, he tries not to think about that day too much, because the excitement of seeing the avengers in action for the first time on the news was overshadowed by seeing his uncle die. It was so close to being him, too. He was going to go to New York that day with Ben, but there was a last minute change of plans. Instead, he stayed at home with May watching the news; her with worry over Ben, and Peter with excitement over watching real superheroes on TV. Until they both saw something tiny in the background of it all, that would’ve been unnoticeable to anyone else watching, but was the end of the world for May and tiny Peter.

Maybe it was thinking about Uncle Ben’s death, or even his own death, or just remembering being at home with May, but Peter suddenly breaks into tears, and if he wasn’t embarrassed before he definitely is now.

“Hey, kid, what’s wrong?” Mr. Stark says, sounding worried.

Peter shrugs, unable to stop the tears. “It was so scary,” he says, not really sure what he’s talking about. “I’ve seen- or, been around a lot of death. My parents died, and my aunt and uncle tried to explain it to me, but I didn’t really get it. I _watched_ my uncle die, and even though I was sad I still didn’t really get it. But, then, on Titan- it was so _scary_. I didn’t know it would feel like that.”

“What do you mean? Everyone I’ve talked to said they felt nothing,” Mr. Stark says, and Peter can tell he’s trying to catch his eye but Peter keeps his gaze fixed on the floor, watching his tears drip down onto the wood. “Peter, what do you mean?”

“With- with my senses, whenever there’s danger it’s like sudden adrenaline but _more_ , cause there’s, like, panic too. Right before I…died…I could _feel_ it. I was like when my senses went off, but it was different,” Peter takes a deep, shuddering breath, “like, I knew I was dying, and it was like I could feel my body screaming at me that all my cells were shutting down. I could feel _all of them_. Then it was like I was being torn apart, and my body was trying to desperately keep itself together but…couldn’t.”

The two of them are both silent for a long time, until eventually Mr. Stark breaks it, “I had no idea.”

Peter shrugs, not really knowing what he could say.

“I’m sorry, kid,” Mr. Stark says, which actually makes Peter look up, frowning. He ignores what look like tears in Mr. Stark’s eyes, it must be the light.

“Why?”

“For not being able to protect you.”

“But, Mr. Stark-”

“I don’t care, I want to apologise,” Mr. Stark interrupts, looking genuine, “god, no wonder you have nightmares, kid, what with all that, and what happened yesterday, and…” 

“Mr. Stark?” Peter questions, not really liking how he’d trailed off, frowning at Peter now.

“Okay, we have a _lot_ to talk about,” Tony says, noticing Peter’s immediate scared look of panic.

“Uh, what do we need to talk about?” Peter asks.

“You were stabbed. And you have a black eye and broken ribs. Those aren’t things you get from a fire.”

Peter looks instantly more nervous, “I don’t wanna bother you with stuff-”

“Peter,” Tony interrupts, “don’t even start. Tell me.”

“Well, uh,” Peter says, hesitating, “my paranoia wasn’t just paranoia.”

“Oh,” Tony says, mentally wincing at the sensitive subject; before the fire they’d been fighting because of this, and they hadn’t exactly resolved it.

“I was just going round the city and some dude attacked me - he was one of the guys on the boat that day.”

“He should be in prison,” Tony says; he should _definitely_ be in prison, “and how the hell did a regular dude overpower you?”

“Uh, I think I might’ve given myself a concussion beforehand. And he surprised me.”

“Okay, I’m not even gonna ask,” Tony says, “so, what, he threatened you?”

“Yeah,” Peter says, “and I think he started the fire.”

“Okay, we need to call the police, Peter.”

“No, no, Mr. Stark, please don’t,” Peter rushes to say, “they already hurt Aunt May once, what if they…”

“Okay,” Tony says, not wanting to make Peter finish, “no police. _For now_.”

Peter looks relieved and thankful, but still tense with worry.

“What else aren’t you telling me?”

Peter takes a deep breath with a look of fear that’s directed right at Tony, “They know who I am.”

“They _what_?”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” Peter stumbles out, “I don’t know how, I think maybe they were following me, but then when he attacked me he took my mask off and he knew my name and that’s how they knew Aunt May and they know where I live and- I- they-”

“Peter, listen,” Tony says, “I’m not mad at you, but this- this isn’t good,” Tony feels stressed; this means not only is he in danger as Spider-Man, but as Peter too, and Tony doesn’t know how to protect him like that. “The second you’re back in school, Happy’s gonna be your personal bodyguard.”

“Mr. Stark-” Peter starts, staring to calm down again now.

“Nope, it’s happening,” Tony says, giving Peter a smile even though he definitely isn’t joking.


	13. Chapter 13

The second Peter falls asleep again, Tony leaves to go to him own room, collapsing onto his bed, closing his eyes and already feeling his tiredness overpowering him. He hasn’t slept since two nights ago and even though it’s not really abnormal for Tony, the emotional exhaustion from worrying about Peter has caught up with him. Before he falls asleep, he checks his phone quickly in case there are any emergencies he’s been ignoring - he asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. not to give him any calls unless they were Peter-related because he needed to focus on him.

There’s a _lot_ of missed calls from Pepper. Great. 

“So, have you decided to tell me what was so important that you’ve ignored my calls for the last day?” Pepper says as soon as she picks up the phone. “And why F.R.I.D.A.Y. says there’s someone staying in the house with you?”

“Okay, I know this looks bad,” Tony starts.

“You’re right, Tony, it does.”

“Listen, there’s this kid-”

“Oh my god, please tell me you haven’t got some teenage kid that you didn’t know about.” Tony would be offended by Pepper’s assumption, but he would’ve reacted the same given that information. He should’ve thought that through.

“No, of course not,” Tony says, “I would tell you about that, straight away,” he adds. It’s not an impossible scenario.

“So, what?”

Tony rubs the bridge of his nose, not even knowing where to start, “It’s Spider-Man.”

“What?” Tony knows it isn’t really his identity to share, but he can’t really be keeping secrets from Pepper, especially considering this is her house too. Hopefully Peter will understand.

“The kid that’s staying here, Peter. It’s Spider-Man.”

“What happened? Why is he staying there? Is he in trouble?”

“No, it was, uh…” Tony pauses; he’s not really sure how to explain what happened. He doesn’t want to share too much and make Peter uncomfortable, or make Pepper worry or mad at him for getting a kid involved with this. He has enough of that from himself. “There was a fire, and he and his aunt were both in it.”

Pepper doesn’t say anything, but Tony can sense her shock, praying this means she won’t be mad at him because of all this.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. managed to notify me in time that I got to him, cause he was in his suit,” Tony pauses again, not liking to think about it and not liking how much luck was involved that Peter hadn’t found and removed the extreme temperature alerts. “I found him unconscious and brought him back home and called Helen Cho. She fixed him up, but then when I called the hospital to ask about his aunt…”

“What happened?” Tony must’ve been silent for longer than he realised, if Pepper was prompting him again.

“She’s in a coma, because of the smoke,” Tony says, “she’s all he has, the kid doesn’t even have his home anymore.”

“So you let him stay there,” Pepper fills in.

“You’re not mad?”

“How old is he?”

“Sixteen.”

“Exactly,” Pepper says, sounding apologetic, for whatever reason, “I’m not gonna be mad at you for taking in an injured and homeless sixteen year old. So how long is he staying with us?”

“As long as he needs. If that’s okay with you,” Tony feels stupidly like crossing his fingers.

“Of course,” Pepper says, “hopefully I’ll be home to meet him soon.”

“You’ll love him, he’s a great kid.”

“He must be for you to be fine with living with him. He must be just like you.”

Tony lets out a short laugh, “Yeah, but that’s what I’m trying to prevent.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Tony.”

“Well, the kids already doing better than me. When he’s my age I’m positive everyone he knows won’t get scared that he’s got some illegitimate child any times he mentions a kid.”

“Don’t start making me feel bad now,” Pepper says, sounding joking but Tony knows she’s serious.

“Is that why you didn’t want kids?” Tony asks, “Cause you don’t want them having a load of half-brothers and sisters they don’t know about?”

“Tony, you know that’s not really true. And you definitely know that’s not why.”

“Then why?”

“Because I’m busy running a company, and you’re busy running off with the avengers at every opportunity. Who the hells going to look after them every time you disappear, Tony? And what about all the danger they’ll be in? Clint kept his family a secret for a reason, and he doesn’t have anywhere near as many enemies as you. Or such a public lifestyle.”

“You know I’d do everything to keep them safe,” Tony says, hating how right Pepper is.

“That still doesn’t change how much danger they’d be in,” Pepper says, “Tony, you get scared any time someone gets closer to you and yet to want to have a _child_  who's life will centre around yours? That’s the definition of being close to you.”

Tony sighs, “I know, you’re right. But I wish you weren’t.”

“I know, Tony. Look, right now you need to focus on the real kid you’re looking after right now, this is something we can talk about later.”

“Okay,” Tony agrees, not particularly willingly but he knows Peppers right, and he does want to focus on Peter at the moment. It’s not really a good time to have another kid.

“I’ve gotta go for a meeting, I’ll call you later.”

Pepper hangs up, and just as Tony’s about to consider trying to get some sleep before Peter wakes up again, he hears a distant voice from somewhere in the house. He sighs, rubbing his eyes and standing up and as he gets closer to the door he can hear more clearly it’s Peter calling out his name.

“Peter?” Tony calls out, opening the door and going down the short corridor to see Peter standing in the middle of the lounge, looking lost.

“Mr. Stark!” Peter says as soon as he notices him, looking relieved, “I woke up and you weren’t there. F.R.I.D.A.Y. said you were in your room, but I didn’t know where that was. I don’t like her as much as Karen.”

Tony laughs, feeling a wave of affection for the innocent kid, “My rooms just back there. I can have Karen installed in your room as well, if you want.”

“Oh, that’d be awesome,” Peter grins, “thanks, Mr. Stark. I’m really hungry.”

“No wonder, you’ve hardly eaten since you’ve been here.” Tony starts walking towards the kitchen, expecting Peter to follow and eventually having to prompt him to come too. 

“Yeah, I, uh, normally eat a _lot_ ,” Peter says, looking embarrassed.

“I’m not surprised, your powers probably mean you’ve got a lot faster metabolism than most people. Is this okay?” Tony asks, holding a box of some leftover Chinese food and Peter nods, taking it from Tony. “I’d love to do some tests on you, see everything that’s actually going on with your body and powers. You never told me,” Tony sits down gesturing for Peter - who’s already started eating - to sit across from him, “how did you get your powers? Were you born with them, or experimented on, or…?”

“I was bitten,” Peter mumbles through a mouthful of food, then makes a big show out of swallowing when Tony gives him a look, “by a spider.”

“Must’ve been some special spider.”

Peter nods, “We were on a school trip to some science lab, and they’d been doing all these experiments on different animals, and the spider they’d messed with bit me, and then next thing I know I can do all this cool stuff.”

“When was that?”

Peter shrugs while he’s still got a mouthful of food, “A couple months before you showed up in my apartment.”

“So you really were new to it all?” Tony says. He wishes he could’ve stopped Peter from ever getting his powers or getting into this world.

“You saw what I was wearing,” Peter jokes.

“Yeah,” Tony agrees, “well, never again.” He’s serious about it, too. Even if he wanted to take the suit away from Peter like he had before he knows now it’s not a good idea; no matter what, Peter will go out even if it’s with no protection what so ever, so Tony will make sure he always has the best protection he can have.

Peter doesn’t see what Tony’s really thinking about, and just smiles up at him before returning to his food.


	14. Chapter 14

Peter spends the rest of the weekend just hanging out with Mr. Stark, trying not to be too obvious about how guilty he feels that he’s distracting him from doing any work, because the first time he mentioned it Mr. Stark told him that’s not something Peter needs to think about, so he doesn’t want to annoy him by constantly bugging him about it. It was actually fun, though. They watches some movies, and played games, and Peter told Mr. Stark everything that happened last year and everything that's happened lately. Peter was actually able to forget about some of his worrying, even if it was only for a little while.

“Mr. Stark,” Peter asks, when they’re both sat down at dinner on Monday night, “when can I go back to school?”

“When you’re better,” he answers simply.

“But _how much_ better? I’m feeling better already.”

Mr. Stark just raises his eyebrows, not looking convinced, “You’ve had barely even three days to recover.”

Peter shrugs, “I recover from things quickly. I-” Peter stops himself, before he works on convincing Mr. Stark completely, realising what he’s doing. The only reason he has a place to stay is because he’s injured, and the moment he’s better he’ll be homeless. “You know, maybe you’re right. Maybe I need more time to recover.”

“Okay, what was that about?” Mr. Stark asks, “Why did you suddenly change your mind?”

Peter shrugs, looking at his food and not meeting Mr. Stark’s eye.

“Peter-”

“When I’m better,” Peter starts, feeling nervous, “are you gonna take me to a foster home?”

“What?” Mr. Stark says, frowning at him, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“‘Cause I don’t have anyone to look after me anymore, or any place to stay…”

“You’re staying here,” Mr. Stark says, still looking confused.

“Yeah, while I’m recovering, ‘cause you couldn’t take me to a hospital. But once I’m recovered…”

“This is why you suddenly changed your mind about feeling better?”

Peter shrugs again, “I just need more time to-”

“Listen, kid,” Tony interrupts, “you’re staying here as long as you need to, okay? I’m not letting you get dumped in a foster home or on the streets.” _And I want you to stay_ , except Tony doesn’t say that part. “You can stay here until your aunts better, and if she needs to she can stay here until you guys can find a new place.”

“Really?” Peter asks, feeling relieved. He still feels like he’s imposing on Mr. Stark’s life, and that he’ll get in the way eventually, but at least knowing he has a place to stay helps reassure some of everything that’s going on with his life. Hearing Mr. Stark talk confidently about his aunt getting better helps, too, and Peter almost feels like maybe eventually everything will be okay. 

“Definitely,” Tony agrees, and opens his mouth to say something else before they’re interrupted by Peter’s phone ringing.

“It’s Ned,” Peter says after checking it, “can I-?”

“Who’s Ned?”

“Ned, my best friend,” Peter explains, “I haven’t told you about Ned?”

“Don’t think so, kid,” Tony shrugs.

“Well, he's my best friend. He's the only other person other than you and my aunt that knows I'm Spider-Man. I haven’t told him about what happened, and he doesn’t even know why I wasn’t in school today so he might be worried,” Peter explains.

“Go for it, kid.”

Peter thanks Tony, then goes off to his room to answer the call.

“Hey,” Ned says straight away, “I heard what happened. It sucks, dude.”

Peter sighs, “Yeah, it does.”

“Are you okay, though?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I can’t come back to school yet, until I’m better.”

“Are you in the hospital? Where are you gonna stay, if-”

“Actually, I’m, uh,” Peter interrupts, because he doesn’t want Ned to finish, “kind of staying with Mr. Stark.”

“You’re staying with _Tony Stark_?” Peter should’ve expected the excitement. “I’m so coming over after school this week!”

“No, dude, be _cool_. Tony Stark won't want a load of teenagers hanging around. I’m surprised he even puts up with me.”

“Cause he loves you, duh.”

“Shut up,” Peter says. He knows Mr. Stark just feels responsible for him, and that’s it.

“Whatever, I’m still coming over, I don’t care.”

“No, Ned, I-” Peter tries to say, but Ned’s already hung up before Peter can argue any more. He sighs, hoping that Mr. Stark doesn’t mind Ned gatecrashing his house and probably completely freaking out over meeting him. But, more importantly, his stomach is starting to complain over not finishing his dinner so he gets up, going back to the dining room where Mr. Stark’s still sat, on his phone.

“Sorry in advance if Ned shows up here. I tried to tell him not to,” Peter says, hoping Mr. Stark doesn’t get mad.

“That’s fine,” he brushes off, “I’ve got good news.”

“What?”

“The doctor just called, he said the treatment seems to be working, and your aunt is looking better,” Mr. Stark tells him, looking genuinely happy about it.

“No way, that’s amazing!” Peter feels overwhelmed by the brief moment where there’s no grief, no worry and no stress, and before he knows it he’s gone over to Mr. Stark and hugged him. He tries to step back awkwardly with an apology but Mr. Stark pulls him back in, and Peter feels relieved, keeping his moment of happiness.

“We’ll visit her the end of the week, okay?” Mr. Stark says once they separate.

“Yeah,” Peter says with a smile. Maybe everything’s actually going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this super tiny chapter, I was feeling lazy today but wanted to get something posted. All of you should definitely check out the new fic I just posted (more peter and tony ofc) because I will love you forever if you do


	15. Chapter 15

The end of the week doesn’t come quick enough for Peter, and when he _finally_ gets approval to leave the house the first thing they do is go to the hospital.

As soon as they get to the hospital, Peter doesn’t waste any time finding and getting to the room his aunt is in. Tony doesn’t want to intrude, so he leaves Peter alone after making sure he’s okay and with a promise to call the second he doesn’t feel well. If they were anywhere other than somewhere full of doctors, nurses, and medical supplies, there would be no way Tony would leave his side for a second. He’s already nervous enough with Peter not being literally hooked up to a tank of oxygen for the first time since the fire.

Tony goes to get a coffee downstairs, only really processing how tired he is from all of this when he sits down. Maybe it’s the harsh, hospital lighting, or being surrounded by similarly distressed people, or just being away from Peter for the first time after it all, but it doesn’t treat Tony well. Sure, he’s been at home and Peter’s been sleeping a lot, so Tony’s had plenty of chance. But, a lot of nights, he keeps himself up with worrying about Peter and just this whole situation, especially knowing the people that did it are still out there, and know who Peter is.

Tony sighs, taking a long sip of his coffee and running his hands through his hair, resting his head in his hands. He has no idea what to do; this isn’t really a situation he’s been in before and he just has no idea how to deal with it. He doesn’t know anything about kids or teenagers, and it’s not exactly like anyone in his line of work are cut out to be parents. Maybe he should call Clint, though he might not exactly know what to do with teenagers. 

Peter’s gone through a lot, and needs someone there for him but Tony doesn’t know if he can do that, or how to do that. He’s got so many issues by himself that he doesn’t know how to cope with, so how the hell is he supposed to help with someone else’s? He knows Peter has nowhere else to go, and like he already told Peter, there’s no way he’s letting him be alone and thrown in the foster system while his aunts in the hospital. But that still doesn’t mean he knows how the hell he’s going to do this.

Tony sighs again, drinking a lot more coffee probably way too quickly. He needs time to think; this all happened way too suddenly. He was just worried about Peter and making sure he was okay, and now all of a sudden he’s fostering the kid? Even though Pepper agreed and is supportive, he doesn’t know how long this is going to last. Sure, she’s off on business and is most of the time lately, but it’s still her house and she might get fed up with having to share it with a kid that isn’t even hers, and that she didn’t choose to have. He’s got the responsibility of the avengers, too, to worry about. They’ve doubled in size again and it’s so much more to manage and think about than before. Maybe, once Peter’s completely better, they can move to the compound so Tony isn’t so separate. But, then, he doesn’t want to mess with the kids’ school stuff by distracting him with more avengers things. Or getting him involved in more danger by him thinking he can be involved in all the fights with the rest of the avengers, which Tony is definitely not risking.

 _Okay,_ Tony thinks, _I need to stop._ He takes a deep breath, downing the rest of his coffee. Peter is the priority right now, he doesn’t need to try and think ahead to all the mess that’s following this. He can take each day and each issue as it comes. Right now, he needs to make sure Peter is okay and recovering, and isn’t taking everything with his aunt too hard. He was confident and happy a lot of the week, knowing that his aunt was recovering, but seeing her in a bad state might take him back to where he was before. Tony needs to not be too distant, and make sure he has someone to talk to so he doesn’t shut himself away. Tony knows, first hand, that that definitely doesn’t end well.

Tony stands up, taking another deep breath to try and clear his thoughts before he sees Peter again. He throws his coffee cup away, resisting the temptation - the _strong_ temptation - to get another one. He makes his way back to Peter’s aunt’s room, thinking on his way exactly how he can be less emotionally-removed. At least enough to be able to reassure Peter and make sure he’s okay. Tony’s been through this, he _should_ know how.

When he gets to the room, Tony’s heart drops. Peter isn’t there and he assumes the worst immediately. He looks down one corridor and spots a bathroom door, sighing out of semi-relief. 

“Peter, you there?” he asks when he goes into the bathroom, noticing all of the stalls are empty except one. He prays.

“Uh, yeah,” Peter’s familiar voice calls back from behind the one closed door, meaning Tony can let out a sigh of actual relief. He really needs to stop overreacting.

“You okay?” he asks, wanting to hide how immediately he panics at any tiny sign of danger.

“Mm-hm,” Peter replies, not really sounding okay. Tony steps closer to the door, and he can hear Peter’s laboured, shallow breathing from there.

“Are you sure?” Tony tries to resist full-on pressing his ear against the door. “You don’t sound so good.”

“Yeah, uh,” Peter pauses, taking a deep breath, “yeah, I’m good, Mr. Stark.” He tries to take another deep breath to calm himself (he’s not about to admit to Tony Stark that he’s having some kind of panic attack from thinking too much about the fate of his aunt and thus his own fate), but it doesn’t work so well this time, and the breath catches in his throat triggering a set of deep, painful coughs.

“Peter?” Tony calls out, trying not to freak out because he’s an idiot for even letting Peter leave the house, let alone without the oxygen that he should’ve known Peter still needed. He was too hopeful for Peter’s quick recovery. Peter doesn’t reply, still coughing and wheezing and it’s really starting to make Tony nervous. “Kid, if you don’t reply soon I swear to god I’ll knock this door down,” Tony tries to sound joking and light-hearted but it comes out strained. Peter attempts some mumbled, incoherent reply thats replaced by more harsh coughing that slowly dies out, being followed by fast, wheezing breaths that really scare Tony.

“Okay, fuck it,” Tony mumbles, stepping back a bit and throwing his full weight against the door, shoulder first. The door both cracks down the middle and breaks at the hinges easily. Thank god for flimsy doors. Once he’s managed to push what remains of the door out of the way, Tony kneels down in front of Peter, who’s sat on top of the toilet lid, looking scared and pale.

“Are you okay?” Tony asks, “Can you breath?”

Peter shakes his head; the kid looks terrified. His mouth is open and Tony can hear him desperately trying to force air into his lungs, wincing probably from the injuries to his ribs. 

“Can you stand up?” Tony asks, looping one of Peter’s arms round his shoulder before he can even reply, standing with him and making sure to support as much of Peter’s weight as possible. They make it out of the bathroom stall and almost out of the bathroom before Peter starts coughing again, doubling over from the pain in his side, making Tony lose his grip on him.

Tony readjusts to support Peter differently, so he’s still not standing on his own, and he really tries his best not to notice the blood staining the palm Peter had coughed into. As soon as the coughing stops, Tony gives Peter a brief warning before he picks him up - fully bridal-style - and walks him out of the bathroom, taking no more than a few steps down the corridor before he spots a nurse. It doesn’t take much before they’re hurriedly guiding Tony to a spare room, leaving with the promise of bringing a doctor. Tony lays Peter down on the bed, nervously waiting for the doctor to arrive.

Several people come in at once, and Tony gets pushed back while they move around Peter, doing various things that Tony doesn’t understand.

“Excuse me?” a voice asks from behind him, a nurse, “Are you his father?”

“Uh,” Tony pauses; his brain can’t even think enough to process it, “I’m his acting guardian, I guess. We were here visiting his aunt.”

“Okay,” the nurse says, “is this a pre-existing condition?”

“He was in a fire,” Tony says, not really feeling like he’s talking. He feels numb watching the different doctor’s move round Peter and attaching him to various machines, “a doctor saw him, he’d, uh, breathed in a lot of smoke. And he had a broken rib, I think, or maybe a few.”

“Okay,” the nurse nods again, “was he put on oxygen?”

“Yeah, he had…one of those things…” Tony just about manages to gesture what he’s talking about, and luckily the nurse nods in understand.

“It seems as though he was taken off too early, and needs more oxygen treatment, but they’re going to do some tests to check there’s nothing more serious going wrong.

“Okay,” Tony says, “is he okay?”

“Of course,” the nurse says, confidently, “he’ll be just fine, Sir. With the oxygen he should stabilise quickly.”

Tony nods, feeling relieved but not really being able to show it. All he can really process is how pale Peter looks, a mask now covering most of his face, hiding the bluish tint of his lips, but nothing hiding the same colour on his fingertips. Two more things Tony wishes he hadn’t noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going on holiday so I'm going to try still post as much as I can but I can't promise anything, I'll make up for it as soon as I'm back I promise


	16. Chapter 16

It’s a long night for Tony sat by Peter’s bedside, tired but awake and worrying. He’s been watching Peter for hours when a doctor takes him aside to discuss the results of the numerous tests they’d been taking Peter in and out for, a somewhat welcome relief from seeing Peter in that state, and knowing it was his fault. He should’ve been more careful with him, kept him home for longer.

“Mr. Stark,” the doctor starts with, and Tony tries not to roll his eyes. Great, so the press is gonna be all over this. He hasn’t even told Pepper that Peter’s in the hospital. “It seems as though Peter has suffered a minor lung injury.”

“But…he’s seen a doctor, she said he was fine. The nurse…earlier…said he would be fine.”

“And he will be. It’s completely normal that this was missed initially,” the doctor reassures, “there can be a delay in these things showing up, so typically a follow-up should be carried out. This, combined with him being taken off the treatment too early on is what seems to have led to the attack.”

Tony nods, pushing down the ever-growing guilt from letting Peter talk him out of bringing the oxygen with them.

“Peter should have to stay in our care for a while longer, until he’s recovered.”

Tony’s not happy about it, but he can’t really protest. He cares more about Peter getting better, and hopes his abilities mean it doesn’t take too long.

As soon as the doctor leaves, Tony goes back to the room and once he sits down, Peter starts to stir. Tony feels a wave of relief, finally being able to silence the small voice that had been worrying Peter might not wake up. Peter looks a much healthier colour now, but that doesn’t change how terrifying it was to see him so oxygen-deprived. He was _blue_.

“Hey, kid,” Tony says, not really hiding his obvious smile. Or the even more obvious pain behind it.

Peter manages a small, weak one in response, “What happened?”

“The doctors said you’ve got an injured lung, and that you shouldn’t have been taken off the oxygen so soon,” Tony tells him, giving him an I-told-you-so look.

“Sorry,” Peter says sheepishly, looking away, “when can we go home?”

“Uh,” Tony pauses, being thrown off by ‘home’, “they said you’d have to stay for a while until you’ve recovered.”

Peter looks immediately nervous, “I have to stay?”

“I know it’s not ideal, kid, but the doctors know best and I can’t risk that happening again.” More importantly, he can’t risk losing him again.

“But…” Peter starts, and Tony waits with curiosity for him to continue, but he seems to give up, sighing and letting his shoulders slump down.

“I’m sorry, kid,” Tony says, feeling genuinely bad, “I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can.”

Peter nods, not looking confident about it. Before Tony can try to reassure him further, a nurse comes in, commenting on how Peter’s woken up and taking some of his blood.

“We just need to check oxygen levels, nothing major,” she reassures at Peter’s nervous look, but Tony knows why he actually looks nervous. The nurse adjusts some things Tony doesn’t understand, and she’s gone again.

“What if they figure out I’m not normal?” Peter asks as soon as she’s gone.

“I’m sure they won’t, they won’t be looking at anything other than your oxygen levels, like she said.”

“Yeah, but what if, like, my blood looks really abnormal or something?”

“Listen, kid,” Tony tries to sound reassuring but he’s not sure exactly how effective it really is, “they took loads of blood while you were out, they would’ve noticed something by now if there was anything to notice.”

“Okay,” Peter says, not looking any less nervous.

“Is there something up?” Tony asks, “Anything I should be worrying about?”

“No,” Peter says, far too quickly, “no, Mr. Stark, everything’s fine.”

“Peter,” Tony says, knowing he’s lying.

“What if that guy finds me again?” Peter lets out easily, letting Tony see his worry over the situation. “They know who I am, and if they find out I’m here-”

“I won’t let them get anywhere near you, okay?” Tony reassures him, “Besides, they wouldn’t be able to get in to see you.”

“Okay,” Peter sighs, looking only partially reassured. They both don’t say anything for a while, sitting in silence until Peter gasps, and Tony watches closely for any signs of coughing.

“I need to call Ned,” Peter says, which must’ve been his revelation.

“Your friend?”

“My _best_ friend,” Peter corrects, “I think he kind of wants to show up at your house to surprise me but I won’t be there. And he’d probably want to know I’m in the hospital.”

Tony nods, his eyebrows slightly raised.

“I need to call him,” Peter repeats and looks around, confused for a moment. “Do you have my phone?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Tony fishes the phone out his pocket, handing it across. Somewhere in all the mess someone had given it to him from Peter’s pocket, he supposes, but Tony hadn’t really paid attention to what was happening.

“Thanks,” Peter says, not looking up now he’s got his phone in his hands, dialling a number and looking somewhat upbeat while he waits with the phone against his ear. Tony reminds himself to thank this Ned kid, one day, for making Peter manage to smile despite all this.

“Dude,” Tony hears an unfamiliar voice say, clearly, even from several feet away, “I wanted to come over but you haven’t been checking your phone for _ages_.”

“I know, man, I’m sorry. A lot has happened. I’m staying in the hospital now because…” Tony leaves the room, shutting the door behind him and hearing Peter’s voice fade out. He wants him to be able to talk to his friend in privacy; explaining the whole new situation probably isn’t easy as it is, let alone with Tony sitting there listening in. After a while, he pokes his head back in to check the progress of the phone call.

“Neds coming to visit me, is that okay, Mr. Stark?” Peter asks, looking hopeful.

“Of course,” Tony says, because Peter shouldn’t really have to ask anyway.

Peter smiles; Tony can still see the sadness behind his eyes, but it’s a smile, nonetheless.

 

* * *

 

“No way. _Tony Stark_?” is the first thing this kid says to Tony when he arrives, his mouth hanging open, looking at Tony in awe.

“Ned, be _cool_ , you knew he was here,” Peter hisses, and Tony just manages to catch the look Peter gives his friend. Weirdly, this is the first time Peter has felt like a real, normal kid to Tony, and it hits him hard. He _is_ just a regular kid with regular friends that freak out over meeting famous people.

“Nice to meet you,” Tony stands up, giving the kid a smile and sticking out a hand for him to shake, “Ned, is it?”

“No way,” Ned barely even looks at Tony, before he looks at Peter with wide eyes, “Tony Stark knows my name.”

“Well, Peter’s told me about you,” Tony tells him. It’s not really a lie, because he knows his name from Peter and Peter _has_ told Tony about him, but it was only earlier in the week and that’s the extent of his knowledge.

“Dude, you told Tony Stark about me?” Ned asks Peter, before looking back at Tony even more freaked out before, “This so isn’t real.”

“It is,” Tony says, “but you were here to see your friend, not me, so I’ll leave you guys to it.”

Just as Tony’s leaving, he hears Ned saying, “Do you think I scared Tony Stark off? Was I too weird?” before the door shuts, and Tony can’t help but laugh. He sits on one of the chairs just outside, listening to the two boys laughing and joking. It feels good to hear Peter happy and laughing, and Tony’s relieved that he can put everything aside even just for a few minutes.

 

* * *

 

Tony’s looking slightly suspicious, straining to hear what they’re saying behind the door when he overhears his own name, though he shouldn’t really be surprised judging by how Ned reacted to meeting him. He hopes Peter doesn’t talk about him like that when Tony’s not there, because he definitely shouldn’t idolise Tony, but he also can’t help but laugh at the thought of it. A nurse catches him looking suspicious, raising his eyebrows slightly but not commenting.

“I’m here to discuss visiting hours,” the nurse tells him, throwing Tony off because he’s been there for definitely over 12 hours and there didn’t seem to be any set hours, “we don’t have any set visiting times, but we do set limits on the length of visits for the sake of the patients’ recoveries.”

 _Oh_ , Tony thinks, trying not to look too disappointed.

“We tend to excuse it when a patients first been brought in, but since everything has calmed down now and Mr Parker’s been awake for a while, especially since he has another visitor, and you're not family…”

“Yeah, I get it,” Tony says, sparing the nurse the awkwardness of having to tell him to leave, “when can I come back?”

“You should be able to visit in the morning.”

Tony nods, “Thanks,” he tells the nurse, before turning to say goodbye to Peter. He doesn’t want to leave, at all, but he’s not about to cause issues with the people that are making Peter better.

“And then there was this _huge-_ ” Ned is saying when Tony walks in, but freezes the moment he notices, eyes wide staring at Tony.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna interrupt you guys for too long,” Tony gives Ned a smile that just makes him look more scared, “one of the nurses just told me I’ve overstayed my welcome, and I’m not allowed to visit until the morning.”

Peter immediately loses his new cheerful glow, “Wait, really?”

Tony shrugs, “Sorry, kid.”

“But…” Peter starts, “are you sure you can’t stay?”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.” Peter looks nervous, almost scared, and Tony wishes he could reassure him that nothing’s going to happen, but he doesn’t want to say anything in front of Ned that Peter hasn’t told him. “You can always call me if you need anything, okay?”

Peter nods, looking somewhat reassured, but still nervous.

Tony really doesn’t want to have to go after seeing Peter so nervous, but he manages to force himself to say goodbye to the two boys and make his way home. At least he might be able to get some sleep now, after being so drained from the stress of it all, and he can be semi-rested for when he comes back to see Peter. Hopefully.

 

* * *

 

For once, Tony falls asleep almost the second he gets home, even though the sun has barely set. He’s hardly slept all week with worrying about Peter, and now he’s reached a tipping point where he just can’t physically stay awake anymore. He still doesn’t sleep well, having a variety of his typical nightmares, which are becoming evermore Peter-related, and he gets a harsh awakening from the loud ringtone calling out from his pocket.

“Mr. Stark?” Tony hears Peter say as soon as the call connects, his voice weak and out of breath,  “Please get me out of here."


	17. Chapter 17

Having Ned visit him was fun, and it meant Peter could finally forget about some of the horrible things that had been going on, if only for a while. But regardless, the second Ned had left he was sent back into loneliness and the sadness of thinking about Aunt May. Before he had visited, he was feeling positive after what the doctors had said about her getting better. But now that he’s seen her it’s hard to stay positive. He wishes Mr. Stark didn’t have to leave, and wishes he had an exact time for when he was going to come visit so he could start counting down the minutes. He contemplates calling him, but doesn’t want to risk being a pain after how much Mr. Stark has done for him, so he leaves it for now. Maybe Peter should get some sleep; he feels exhausted and drained and he won’t be able to think about anything and make himself worry even more.

So, after a nurse interrupts to take _more_ blood, Peter settles down to try and sleep a bit, and, despite the pain, it’s surprisingly easy.

 

* * *

 

Peter wakes up to a blinding pain in his side and his eyes shoot open just as his oxygen mask - which a nurse must’ve swapped while he slept, because he doesn’t remember having a full mask when he fell asleep - is ripped off of him. Peter blinks, taking in the stranger leaning over him, one hand against Peter’s broken ribs putting _a lot_ of weight behind it, and the other holding the oxygen mask. Peter knows it’s just because he’s overthinking it, but it already feels so much harder to breath.

“Don’t think you’re safe just because Tony Stark likes to hang round you 24/7,” the stranger says, pushing harder against Peter’s ribs and it’s all he can do to resist the gasp that he knows will set off another coughing fit. “We set that fire so don’t think we won’t do worse.”

“I don’t-” Peter starts, interrupted by a _really_ bad pain in his side, _a lot_ worse than before. He looks down and his brain can barely process seeing a knife in his side, just below the guys hand. _Well, shit_. Peter feels numb.

“I know exactly what room your aunt is in. Don’t think we won’t do something.”

“What to you want?” Peter manages, his eyes blurring and having to fight to stay conscious.

“You’ve caused a lot of shit for a lot of people. We all want you not just dead, but to hurt a lot first.”

“So why are you here? To threaten me? If you already want to kill me there’s not exactly anything I can do differently.”

“I’m here to tell you,” he twists the knife and Peter’s vision blacks for a moment, “the cops have found evidence that the fire was arson, so if you tell them a single thing then your aunt _definitely_ won’t wake up from that coma.”

Peter doesn’t say anything, he feels anger flowing through him and it’s probably the only thing keeping him conscious. He wishes he had the energy or the ability to get up and strangle this guy. If they _dared_ to try and hurt May-

They already hurt May. They started the fire which is the reason May is in a coma right now. Peter isn’t really aware of what he’s doing, but he knows one second he was lying on a hospital bed with a knife in his side, and the next he’s pinned the guy against a wall, still with a knife in his side.

“If you _touch_ her,” Peter threatens, but then there’s more pain when the guy reaches down and pulls out the knife, which, _wow_ , hurts. Peter feels the wet knife against his neck and immediately backs off.

“Don’t try anything,” the guy says, looking cocky for overpowering Peter. Not really, but Peter’s not risking fighting this guy when he’s so injured already.

Peter settles for glaring at him, making sure this guy sees the full extent of his anger.

“Enjoy your recovery,” the guy smiles, disappearing quickly as soon as the knife is away from Peter.

“Shit,” Peter says out loud, letting himself drop to the floor. He doesn’t know how long he sits there, he guesses he’s waiting for a doctor or someone to find him, but eventually he realises no one is going to. He manages to pull himself up onto the bed and find his phone, and dials on reflex.

“Mr. Stark? Please get me out of here.”

 

* * *

 

“You _what_?” As soon as Peter had asked to get him out of there, Tony had already started getting ready to leave, but now he was all but sprinting to his car. “ _Stabbed?”_ It kind of scares him how casual Peter sounds.

“Uh, there was a guy in here…”

“Who?” Tony says, already feeling his anger building up. He’s going to kill whoever it is.

“I don’t know,” Peter says.

“Was he with the other guy? From before?” Tony asks, starting his car and switching to handsfree. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., call Helen Cho to meet me back at the house.”

“Okay boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replies.

“What?” Peter asks, sounding confused and out of it.

“I was just talking to F.R.I.D.A.Y., kid. Getting you a doctor.”

“Are you taking me out of the hospital?”

“Definitely. Apparently I can’t even trust doctor’s to keep their patients from being stabbed.” Tony tries not to swear under his breath, purely for Peter’s sake.

“This really hurts, Mr. Stark…”

“Are you bleeding a lot?” Tony asks. His hands are shaking on the steering wheel, and he’s struggling to stay in his lane.

“Uh,” there’s a pause, “I think so.”

 _Shit_. “Okay, kid, I’m gonna be there as quick as I can. Please tell me you called me the second he left?”

“Uh…”

“Peter?” he doesn’t say anything for a while, and it really scares Tony.

“I sat down, and I thought a doctor was going to come, but they didn’t…” Peter says, and Tony can hear how bad his breathing is, “so I called you, because you always save me when no one else does."

Tony tries to brush over what the kid says, focusing on his breathing instead, “Do you have an oxygen mask or anything on, kid?”

“No, he took it off.”

“Can you find it?”

There’s a pause, and some rustling, before Peter comes back, “I’ve got it, but I won’t be able to talk.”

“I don’t care. Put it on. I’ll hang up, I’ll be there soon anyway.”

“Okay, Mr. Stark.”

 

* * *

 

Tony doesn’t even park his car when he gets to the hospital; if it gets in the way of anyone then that’s their problem. He practically sprints to Peter’s room and feels relieved to see him still awake, albeit covered in blood.

“Shit, kid,” Tony says, kneeling in front of him and looking at where the knife had gone, “why didn’t you call a doctor?”

“I trust you more,” Peter mumbles through the mask.

“We need to get you back, I’ve got a doctor on the way already.”

“Okay,” Peter says, “are you mad at me?”

“Definitely not, kid,” Tony reassures him, thinking how he’s going to make this work without hurting Peter more, “but once we’ve fixed you up there is a lot to talk about. Okay, wrap your arms round my neck.”

Peter does as Tony says, and Tony just about manages to lift Peter in his arms - sure, the kid isn’t exactly tall, but he isn’t exactly light either. Tony tries not to think too much about Peter’s wince; he needs to focus on getting him home. He grabs the tank attached to Peter’s mask, not caring that it belongs to the hospital. They can take it out of what Tony sues them for.

“Let’s get you home, okay kid?”

Peter nods, his head settling against Tony’s chest, looking pale and weak.

Several people try to stop Tony leaving with Peter, but he doesn’t have the time or patience to deal with any of them, and ends up yelling at most of them, taking out his anger for what’s happened to Peter. They eventually make it to the car - which is thankfully still in one piece and not towed away - and Tony lays Peter along the back seat.

“Yell if you need anything, I just have to drive us home.”

Peter nods again, closing his eyes. Tony doesn’t even think or care about the blood staining the leather.

 

* * *

 

“Thanks for coming on such short notice,” Tony says when he meets Helen outside of the house, “again.”

She nods, “What happened?”

“He was in the hospital,” Tony starts to explain, as he carries a now semi-unconscious Peter to his room, “apparently he had a minor lung injury, but someone got in and attacked him. He’s been stabbed in the side.”

“On the side with the cracked ribs?”

“Yeah,” Tony says, “I think so.” They get to Peter’s room and he lays him down on the bed, putting the oxygen tank down next to it.

Tony watches carefully and nervously while Helen checks the wound, trying not to get in her way too much.

“It looks like he’s lost a lot of blood, but the wound seems to already be healing quite well,” she tells Tony, “thank god for enhanced healing.”

“Thank god,” Tony repeats.

“That hopefully means the blood loss shouldn’t have too bad of an effect, and because this is already starting to heal so well his lungs should be almost fine by now. His ribs might take longer to recover, and his enhanced metabolism should hopefully mean he can recover his blood oxygen levels quickly.”

Tony nods, “So he’s okay?”

“He’s fine,” Helen confirms, “keep an eye on him, I’ll re-bandage his ribs. He should stay on oxygen for a while, see how he feels and if he thinks he can manage without, only go without if you’re still at home and can put him back on if anything happens.”

“Okay, and I can call if anything happens?”

“Always,” Helen smiles, “I’m gonna set up an IV for him to help with the blood loss, but other than that he seems to be managing the healing on his own, he’ll just be a bit weak at first.”

“Thank you so much,” Tony says, completely genuinely, watching while Helen finishes sticking needles in Peter and wrapping him up before she leaves with plenty of your welcome’s to meet Tony’s endless thank you’s.

“God, kid,” Tony says to a still unconscious Peter, “you really need to stop scaring me.”


End file.
